The Monday Gush: Adam Morgan pitched okay against the Braves!

Adam Morgan pitched pretty well!

The Phillies lost to the Braves twice in a row. In the first game, Aaron Nola did not look great, which made everyone sad. But in the second game, Adam Morgan actually pitched a pretty solid start, going six innings, allowing only two earned runs and four hits, and giving the Phillies offense a chance to win the game, which they of course they did not do.

Jerad Eickhoff also looked pretty good!

You might look at the Phillies schedule and see that they lost two straight games to Atlanta - one of which was an Aaron Nola start. So you might not think this series saw a wealth of encouraging pitching. But Morgan looked decent in game two, and Eickhoff gave the Braves nothing to work with in the finale, going seven innings with five hits and a walk. Wins over the Braves come with an asterisk, given that Atlanta has already lost 31 times in 43 games, but after such rampant struggles for Eickhoff, anything that delivers confidence for the 25-year-old righty is acceptable at this point.

The Phillies can win without scoring runs, apparently!

It's a huge innovation in this sport, really.

The top prospects are trending swiftly upward!

As Tommy Joseph shifted into the big leagues, various other movements took place, and by the time the sun rose on May 20, some of the most prolific Phillies prospects had reordered themselves under direction from the great Baseba'al.

More younglings than ever are scratching at the door of the Phillies' roster; the universally celebrated shortstop, the exciting young starting pitcher, the power hungry outfielder, the catcher trying to maintain momentum, and Mark Appel!

The Phillies aren't turning on Ryan Howard and Maikel Franco!

After something as humiliating as being shut out by the Braves, it's only natural for everyone to shift their vitriol toward a single target, in hopes that by becoming furious enough, something will change. The Phillies are denying themselves this therapy, for some reason, and will "stick together" like some sort of "team."

"We don’t have to put that on (their) shoulders. This is a team. Nine guys go to bat."

--Freddy Galvis on Howard and Franco's slumps

Howard hasn't had a hit in 14 at-bats, Franco's best luck at the plate came when a pitch narrowly missed his face - and Odubel Herrera didn't seem to be too far behind them, with no hits and only one walk entering Sunday's game (in which he went 2-for-3 with a walk, yay!). And yet, no one is blaming any singular figure on the team, refusing to allow their days and nights and every action to be dictated by a loathsome blame game. It's weird.

Jim Thome is still out there coaching murderous little league teams!

Look out, parents; you never know when the other team's van will pull up at the field and Jim freaking Thome is going to hop out, give you that smile as vast and deep as a midwestern corn field, then pull you in close while laughing and abruptly whisper, "You will not exist when my team is finished with you."

J.P. Crawford hit his first AAA hit with the IronPigs!

Also, check out those uniforms.

The Phillies are shutting teams out!

Last year, the Phillies needed an entire season to amass seven shut out wins. But this is 2016, and things are weird and different now. Sunday's 5-0 win over the Braves put the Phillies at seven shut outs for the season, and it's not even June. Who knows how many more times we play the Braves!

They have also only been swept once!

As embarrassing as it was to be two games in the hole against the league's worst team, all the Phillies needed on Sunday was not to get swept. The Mets and Nationals both walked through wins, keeping the NL East landscape intact and not losing anymore ground was key, for anyone thinking about that sort of thing right now. Fortunately, the Phillies pulled through, keeping their number of sweeps on the season at one - the one with which they started the season in Cincinnati.