PHILADELPHIA -- Though nobody seems poised to run away with the National League East anytime soon, the Braves know they need to string together wins at some point to make a serious run.

Following Sunday's 2-1 loss in their series finale against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, the time for that may just need to come this week. Atlanta (48-50) fell back into third place in the NL East heading into a crucial five-game series against the first-place Mets -- one that will conclude approximately 24 hours before Friday's 4 p.m. ET Trade Deadline.

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Despite another dazzling outing from Touki Toussaint, the Braves settled for a four-game split in Philadelphia on the first leg of their two-city, nine-game road trip. Toussaint racked up a career-high 10 strikeouts -- and did not issue a walk -- over seven innings of one-run ball.

The former top prospect has a 1.32 ERA in his two starts since rejoining the Braves, while striking out 15 batters and walking only two over 13 2/3 innings. That came after Toussaint put up a 1.50 ERA and struck out 18 in just 12 innings in his last two starts with Triple-A Gwinnett before joining the big league club.

"I'm just taking it day by day,” said Toussaint, who had an 8.88 ERA in seven appearances (five starts) spanning 24 1/3 innings last season. “I don't want to get ahead and try to look forward. Today felt good, and leave it at that."

At a time when contenders across the Majors -- and particularly in the NL East -- are scrambling to find rotation depth ahead of Friday’s Trade Deadline, the Braves may have found an internal boost for the stretch run.

“He's forcing swings with the stuff that he's throwing. Man, it's really good,” manager Brian Snitker said. “His delivery looks simpler. What I've learned in this game is you have to have patience with guys -- and a lot of times we don't -- because you just never know when talented guys might figure things out. And it looks like Touki's starting to maybe figure things out. He should be very confident in what he's doing, that's for sure, because he's been really, really good.”

Unfortunately for Toussaint, Atlanta was unable to push across anything against Phillies starter Aaron Nola until Austin Riley’s solo homer with two outs in the ninth. Though that finally knocked Nola out of the game after 116 pitches, Ranger Suárez came on and slammed the door.

Riley accounted for three of Atlanta’s four hits, also lining doubles in the fourth and seventh innings. The latter represented Atlanta’s only other real threat of the day. With Atlanta trailing, 1-0, Riley roped a leadoff two-bagger and Dansby Swanson followed with a sharp grounder up the middle. But Jean Segura made a diving stop to rob Swanson of a hit -- and potentially save a run. Though Riley advanced to third on the play, Abraham Almonte flied out to shallow left and Guillermo Heredia grounded out to end the threat.

That led to an all-too-familiar refrain for a Braves team that has not won back-to-back games since July 9-10 against the Marlins. They have alternated wins and losses in each of their nine games since the All-Star break.

"We've done a really good job of preventing us from slipping into a hole, losing seven, eight, nine, 10 games in a row -- that hasn't happened,” said Charlie Morton, who is scheduled to take the hill in the middle game of the five-game series against the Mets. “The inverse of that, though, is we need to get on one of those rolls where we win that many games in a row. This team is more than capable of doing that."

That may be exactly what it takes for one of these NL East teams to separate itself from the pack.

After all, the Braves are only five games back of the Mets entering the five-game set at Citi Field. Depending how that series unfolds, the Braves could be tied for first place by the time the series wraps on Thursday. They could also be as far as 10 games back. Of course, the most likely scenario is they fall somewhere in between.

Whatever that number is at Thursday’s end could determine how things play out in the final hours leading up to Friday afternoon’s Deadline.

"We've got to win these games. This is a big series,” Snitker said. “It's five games against the team we're chasing. We can rest in the winter. We've got to get after it right now."