ATLANTA -- A pennant race without controversy is like a summer without barbecues, an election without scandals, a golf tournament without Tiger.

So welcome, friends, to Quagmiregate.

After Tuesday's Braves-Phillies game at Turner Field, Phillies manager Larry Bowa was asked an innocent question about the importance of the Phillies' running game when he dropped this surprise answer out of the sky:

"They tried to stymie us with a little quagmire around first base," Bowa said. "But hopefully, that will be taken care of tomorrow."

Quagmire?

"Boy, it's amazing," said Braves manager Bobby Cox, "that nobody slipped once."

Of course, had it been an actual quagmire, they would have been in more danger of drowning than slipping. But several Phillies said they thought the Braves had overwatered the infield, particularly the area around first base, before Tuesday's game -- in an attempt to slow down the Phillies, not to mention as many Greg Maddux groundballs as possible.

"I noticed during batting practice it was much softer than usual," said Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who was thrown out stealing second by an opposing catcher (Paul Bako) for only the second time all season Tuesday. "Then, before the game, they sprayed it two more times. We come here three or four times a year, so we know this field is usually real hard. But this time it was real soft."

So Bowa and general manager Ed Wade spoke with plate umpire Wally Bell during Tuesday's game. Then Bowa conferred with crew chief Mark Hirschbeck before Wednesday's game, and Hirschbeck then met with the grounds crew before they began their pregame watering.

The crew members made one full spraying orbit of the infield, then did a quick mini-spray the second time around. They appeared to water the first-base area slightly less than the rest of the infield. But Cox and GM John Schuerholz were both adamant that there was nothing sinister going on in the Turner Field watering supply.

"I find it very ironic," Schuerholz said, tongue at least slightly in cheek, "that people are coming from the worst playing field in either sport (Philadelphia's ever-popular Veterans Stadium), and they're complaining about our field. This is the best shape this field has ever been in.

"The complaint we usually get," Schuerholz said, "is that it's too hard. They're just used to it being like concrete. I'm not an agronomist. But the soil makeup of this infield contains a lot of clay, which we have to have here. And that soil just does better in cooler weather. It stays more loose, more pliable."

Actually, Schuerholz quipped, the Phillies "should be happy it is how it is. That ball that hit Scott Rolen in the chest (Tuesday) night would have hit him in the forehead before."

Cox was equally incredulous.

"Hey," he said, "it's our park, isn't it? We don't go around to every other park and tell them how to water their infield.

"That field was perfect," he said. "We didn't tinker with it at all. I bet you Bowa would have liked to play on it."

"Know what?" Bowa replied, laughing. "I would."

And as long as modern ballparks were the issue of the day, Cox couldn't resist a dig at the Vet himself.

"If they want to do something about a field, they ought to do something about their bullpen in Philadelphia," he said. "That's ridiculous. You've got guys basically throwing off concrete."

There's an excellent chance no Senate investigative committees will need to be convened to settle this tiff. But it made pennant-race life just a little more fascinating, for a day or two anyway.