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There is only darkness.
Familiar and distressing darkness.
The Phillies playoff drought has reached a decade.
Six months after opening the season with a three-game sweep against the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies found themselves on the wrong side of a three-game sweep against the same club Thursday night.
The Phillies’ 5-3 loss to Atlanta knocked them out of the playoffs as the Braves blew champagne corks to celebrate their fourth straight National League Eastern title.
The Phillies have three more games to play, all in Miami against the Marlins, before coming home for the winter for the 10th straight year without a playoff appearance. Only the Seattle Mariners, who last made the playoffs in 2001, have gone any longer without making the playoffs and they remain alive in the American League wildcard race.
At 81-78, the Phillies need at least one win to have their first winning season since 2011.
The way this team limped all the way to the finish line, one has to wonder if they will even get this win.
The Phillies didn’t swing the sticks well in Atlanta. They entered the series after being shut out by Pittsburgh in their last home game on Sunday, then only scored six points in all three games in Atlanta. Two of those races were undeserved.
The Phillies headed for Atlanta behind the Braves by 2.5 games. Yes, the odds were against the Phils, but they weren’t impossible. The Phils essentially needed to wipe out the Braves – like they did in April – to stay alive and put pressure on Atlanta going into the final week of the season.
Instead, it was the Phillies that got swept away.
With the exception of a few late home runs from Andrew McCutchen and JT Realmuto in Thursday night’s game, the Bats barely fought.
The Phils have only managed 13 hits in three games.
MVP candidate Bryce Harper got 0 for 11 with five strikeouts in the series.
Jean Segura got 1 for 12
Realmuto went 1 for 12.
Not enough.
Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola provided quality starts in the first two games of the series, but Charlie Morton and Max Fried were both better to lead the Braves to 2-1, 7-2 wins.
Thursday night, Kyle Gibson was scored for five runs in 4th innings. He allowed four hits, solo homers from Jorge Soler and Austin Riley, an RBI double from Dansby Swanson and a triple RBI from Ozzie Albies.
Braves right-hander Ian Anderson, who picked up two picks after the Phillies selected Mickey Moniak for No. 1 in the 2016 Draft, made three straight starts for the Braves. He held the Phillies scoreless for the first six innings before giving McCutchen a two-run homer in the seventh. Realmuto hit reliever Luke Jackson with two strikeouts in the eighth to make it a two-point game.
The Phils haven’t come close.
There is only darkness.
Again.
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