ATLANTA -- Since the last time the Philadelphia Phillies even played in a series this important, the Atlanta Braves have played 65 postseason games.

	Randy Wolf got his first victory against the Braves (1-5), outdueling Greg Maddux.

Before Randy Wolf ever got to take the ball in a game this meaningful, the man he was pitching against, some guy named Greg Maddux, had rolled up 247 regular-season wins, 10 postseason wins and four Cy Youngs.

So for one team -- guess which one? -- the scene Tuesday at Turner Field looked awfully familiar. For the other, it was as foreign as downtown Istanbul.

Naturally then, what happened when the top two teams in the National League East got together for the opener of a dramatic three-game series Tuesday night?

Exactly what no one outside of the Phillies' locker room would have expected. Wolf outpitched Maddux (who now has gone seven straight starts without a win for the first time in 10 years), and the Phillies beat the Braves 3-1. And the NL East lead of the long-reigning Braves was down to an uncomfortable one game, with five to play.

Amazing.

"We're like a mosquito bite," Phillies manager Larry Bowa said. "We just stay there. People keep scratching us, thinking we'll go away. And we just stay right there."

How many times this year have the Phillies appeared ready to plunge off the NL East cliff? When they blew an eight-game lead in June? When they lost three straight games on walkoff home runs in July? When they went 5-15 in the last two weeks of August and the first week of September?

But every time people figured they would give it up, lean back in their lounge chairs and watch Atlanta sail off toward its annual appearance in the great baseball Octoberfest, the Phillies have managed to scramble back into this race one more time.

The Braves -- just 11 games over .500 now, after 157 games -- have had something to do with making that possible, obviously. But there is something about these Phillies, too. They keep ignoring logic, ignoring history, ignoring some of the ugliest defeats ever witnessed in any pennant race and worming their way back into contention.

	“	We're like a mosquito bite. We just stay there. People keep scratching us, thinking we'll go away. And we just stay right there. ”
		— Phillies manager Larry Bowa

"I've always described Bowa's approach as apocalyptic," centerfielder Doug Glanville said. "It's Apocalypse Now, here. And apocalyptic means thinking about today. He's very worried about today. He's not worried about tomorrow. Just win today. And that's been the way we've done it.

"We haven't gotten much ahead of ourselves. We haven't looked back a lot. We just focus on today. We had that walkoff-homer thing that one stretch. That could have killed a lot of teams. But we were still right there. We realize it doesn't matter how we lose. It's just a loss, and we've always got tomorrow. We just don't want to run out of tomorrows."

Well, as long as they keep beating the Braves -- and the Phillies have now beaten them four times in five games these last two weeks -- the tomorrows will keep on coming.

If the Phillies sweep the next two games, they would lead Atlanta by a game with three to play. If they split the next two, the Braves would take a one-game lead into the final weekend. (Atlanta finishes at home with Florida. The Phillies play three in Cincinnati.) In either case, the race goes on beyond this series.

But it was Monday's game that set up all those possibilities.

In the most important game the Phillies have played in eight years, Bobby Abreu hit a two-run home run off Maddux in the fourth, Scott Rolen hit a solo homer off John Smoltz in the ninth, Wolf gave up three hits and no earned runs in eight innings, and the Phillies had given themselves a chance.

"This was a huge win for us," Rolen said. "We didn't want to fall three games back regardless. Even if we'd lost the first one and won the next two, this was still the biggest game."

If you've turned on your TV set in October at any time in the last decade, you know these are games the Braves have spent a baseball lifetime playing. And these are games Maddux has spent his entire Atlanta career pitching.

"Every inning, every game he's ever pitched here, has been meaningful," Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone said. "These guys have probably pitched more meaningful innings than any staff in the history of the game."

OK, the 1950s Yankees may want to debate that last point. But nobody can debate that the Braves had lived through about a thousand more games like this than the Phillies. So how do we explain why it was so tough to tell by what we witnessed on the field Tuesday?

Well, it's hard to overlook that the Braves have serious offensive issues. They've scored three runs or fewer 28 times in their past 52 games. They're now two games under .500 this year in games where they don't pitch a shutout. And they've had so much trouble getting people on base that Chipper Jones has gone 21-for-46 (.457) in his last 14 games -- and has driven in exactly one run.

But the Phillies had something to do with what happened Tuesday -- particularly Wolf. Over his last nine starts, he has an ERA of 2.35. In three of his last four starts, he has allowed zero earned runs.

"He's learned how to pitch," Bowa said. "He's changing speeds. He's throwing strikes. He's getting all his pitches over. He's learned what it's all about."

Still, Wolf had never beaten the Braves (0-5, 5.77 lifetime). And he'd been watching Maddux pitch these games "since I was about 8, I think." Yet there he was, at age 25, enjoying every minute of this.

"I set out to have fun," Wolf said. "I know it sounds funny. But these are the kinds of situations you've got to relish. This is the time of my life right now. So I'm going to have a good time doing it. ...

"By fun," Wolf said, "I don't mean skipping in the rain like an idiot. By having fun in a game like this, I mean having confidence in your ability to get outs."

And there came a time, in the bottom of the fifth inning, when he needed all the confidence he could get.

At that point, he'd mowed down 12 straight hitters since allowing a first-inning single to Chipper Jones. Then a one-out Rey Sanchez bouncer hopped up on Rolen and bounced off his glove and chest for an error.

"Hit me in a bad spot," Rolen joked. "My glove."

Seemed innocent enough at the time. But faster than you could say, "Armando Benitez," Paul Bako singled, Maddux got plunked by a 1-2 pitch trying to bunt, Marcus Giles climaxed a nine-pitch at-bat with an RBI single, and the Braves had pulled to within 2-1 and had the bases loaded.

"At that point," Rolen said, "I was panicking, big-time. I did not need that feeling."

But Wolf jammed Julio Franco with an 0-1 fastball. Franco thunked a broken-bat double-play ball to shortstop. And after that, Wolf and closer Jose Mesa never allowed the Braves another baserunner.

In the ninth, Rolen even gave the Phillies a chance to exhale with a home run off Smoltz after four two-strike foul balls. And as that ball disappeared into the left-field seats and Smoltz mouthed a few words you won't be hearing on Sesame Street, you got the sense you were watching a Phillies team that hadn't read the scripts the rest of the world had written for it.

"It's a great feeling to be in this position," Bowa said. "Everything is in your hands. They can go home now for the winter, win or lose, and say, 'Hey, we had the opportunity to win this thing.' It's got to be a great feeling, especially for guys who have never been through this -- guys like Scotty (Rolen) and Bobby (Abreu) and Glanville. They ought to relish this. There are no guarantees this is going to happen again, no matter how bright things look."

"You know, I've never played in October before," Rolen said. "So you'd have to say this is the most fun I've ever had playing in October. But to have Maddux on the mound in October and the game means something and you're wearing a Phillies uniform, that's pretty exciting."

Of course, the excitement doesn't end after one game. It's Tom Glavine versus Robert Person on Wednesday, with nothing but the season riding on this one, too.

"We're fighting for our baseball lives right now," Bowa said. "We've got one. But they've still got the hammer. They're still up a game. And we know all those banners they've got hanging in this place are up there for a reason."

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.