Turner Tribulations: Braves 12, Phillies 2

The Phillies have had some great moments over the years at Turner Field. Cole Hamels and company threw a complete game no-hitter in Atlanta. Ryan Howard has hit some mammoth homeruns in his time there. Shane Victorino saved Brad Lidge's perfect season with a play at the plate nobody will ever forget. "Chase Utley, you are the man" originated here, for heaven's sake.

Not tonight, though. And not last night. And probably not tomorrow, either. The Phillies were crushed in their penultimate effort at the soon to be shuttered Turner Field on Wednesday night by a final score of 12-2. With five games left in the season, it gets harder and harder to root for anything but the final moments of Howard's Phillies career.

Was there a good moment in this game? No. Was there a sliver of anything remotely interesting to talk about in this game? No. Is the 2016 season getting shot out of a cannon and into a region of earth known only to Neil deGrasse Tyson? We can only hope and pray.

When Pete Mackanin stated his true hatred of everyone in his bullpen after Tuesday night's/Wednesday morning's 7-6 loss, he was probably hoping that his starter Wednesday night would offer nothing short of a complete game shutout. He likely cursed to the high heavens when he realized that Adam Morgan would be the one taking a shot at making that happen.

Morgan, uh, took one for the team, if you will. He went five innings. He pitched a baseball 90 times. Most of those pitches did not have a positive end result. Ten hits and 9 earned runs later, and Morgan's night was done after just five innings.

There's not really much to say when you fall behind 9-1 in a baseball game. There's even less to say when you fall behind 12-2. The Phillies were sloppy all night long on the mound, at the plate, and in the field. Barring some sort of miracle pulled off by Atlanta, the Phillies will still finish ahead of the Braves in the standings this season, for whatever that's worth.

The Phillies will say goodbye to Turner Field for good on Thursday. At this point, they probably wouldn't mind if they could say goodbye to this season, too.