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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 dizzying three-game sweep against the Atlanta Braves, the Phillies found themselves on the wrong side of a fatal three-game sweep against the same club on Thursday night.
The Phillies’ 5-3 loss to Atlanta knocked them out of the playoffs as the triumphant Braves blew champagne corks to celebrate their fourth straight National Eastern League title.
Joe Girardi’s post-game mood was drastically different. His voice was hoarse with emotion as he spoke of the disappointment that accompanied the elimination.
“I feel like I failed, you know, to get us where we wanted to go,” said the sophomore Phillies manager. “I still take full responsibility. I failed and it’s a really empty feeling.
“It’s an extreme disappointment because of what we’ve put into it. And when you had a chance last week and you didn’t get it, it’s an extreme disappointment.
“It stinks. It hurts. We’ve been working on it since the last day of last year from a mental standpoint, a physical standpoint, and it hurts.
“We have to improve. We have to break that (playoff drought), and we’re going to work to make it happen.
“But in the end, we didn’t make it and that’s why you put on this uniform, to compete and win.”
The Phillies have three more games to play, all in Miami against the Marlins, before coming home 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 makes you wonder if they’ll even get this win.
Girardi intends to keep pushing.
“It’s important to finish the season and have respect for the game,” he said. “It means something to someone. Ranger (Suarez) will launch tomorrow. It means something to him. So for me you have to play this.”
“It would be nice to have a winning season,” said Andrew McCutchen. “But it’s just a smelly day. It hurts. We didn’t do what we needed to do and it’s not a good feeling.”
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.
“It’s tough to win a series scoring six points in three games,” Girardi said.
The Phillies have won eight straight to take a two-game lead in NL East on August 8.
It was their division to lose – and they lost it. After that eight-game winning streak, they lost 11 of 15 and never again led the division.
They headed to Atlanta earlier this week, behind the Braves by 2.5 games. Yes, the odds were against the Phils, but they weren’t impossible. They basically had 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 McCutchen and JT Realmuto in Thursday night’s game, the sticks 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 McCutchen’s two-run homerun 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.
And now there is only darkness.
Again.
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