Brewers host Phillies, look to clinch NL Central

The Milwaukee Brewers will turn to right-hander Freddy Peralta with a chance to clinch the National League Central when they host the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday in the finale of the three-game series between division leaders.

Peralta (11-8, 3.75 ERA) will be opposed by right-hander Aaron Nola (12-8, 3.62).

Despite losing 5-1 to the Phillies on Tuesday night, the Brewers' magic number dropped to one with the Chicago Cubs' 4-3 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos each homered and Zack Wheeler allowed one run over seven dominant innings as the Phillies evened the series.

With the Cubs playing a day game Wednesday, there's a chance the Brewers (87-64) could clinch before their game gets underway. Milwaukee leads Chicago by 10 games.

Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins played in the postseason in 2022, the last of his six seasons with Philadelphia, and acknowledged it's an unusual situation.

"It's weird. Actually, I've never been in that position," Hoskins said of the possibility of coming to the ballpark as division champions. "The team that I was on that made the playoffs, we were kind of in control of our own destiny, and ... got to clinch because we won a game.

"Obviously tomorrow with the schedule, that's a little bit out of our control," he said. "In our eyes, we still have to win games here."

The Phillies (91-60) lowered their magic number to clinch the NL East to four, and to one to secure a postseason berth. Philadelphia leads the Dodgers by two games for best overall record in the NL. Milwaukee is two games back of Los Angeles. The top two teams get a first-round bye in the playoffs.

Philadelphia also secured the tiebreaker against Milwaukee, thanks to a three-game sweep in June.

"We needed a win here for sure," Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. "We'll try and win the series (Wednesday), but getting the tiebreaker over these guys, I think it's going to be huge coming down the stretch."

Peralta picked up the win his last time out, allowing one run in five innings in a 2-1 victory at Arizona last Friday.

Peralta is 4-2 with a 2.84 ERA over his past seven starts. After pitching six innings in three of his five starts in August, his longest outing in three starts this month is 5 1/3 innings.

Peralta is 0-2 with a 4.01 ERA in six career games, including five starts, against Philadelphia.

Nola has won just once over his past 11 starts, going 1-4 since July 11. In his most recent start, he allowed six runs in 4 1/3 innings in an 11-3 loss to the Mets. He has given up five homers in 15 innings in his three starts this month.

Nola is 7-2 with a 2.76 ERA in 13 career starts vs. the Brewers. He has faced Milwaukee once this season, tossing seven scoreless innings in a 2-0 Phillies victory on June 5.

Harper has three homers in his past four games after a 30-game homerless stretch.

With their win Tuesday, the Phillies improved to 34-1 this season when a starting pitcher goes at least seven innings, including 34 straight. That's the longest streak in Phillies history and second-longest in major league history behind the 1942 Cardinals (42 straight).

--Field Level Media