Sept. 18 – The Milwaukee Brewers will give right-hander Freddy Peralta a chance on Wednesday against the Philadelphia Phillies to lock down the National League Central in the final game of a three-game series between the division leaders.
Peralta (11-8, 3.75 ERA) will line up against right-hander Aaron Nola (12-8, 3.62).
Despite a 5-1 loss to the Phillies on Tuesday night, the Brewers’ magic figure dropped to 1 as the Chicago Cubs lost to the Oakland Athletics 4-3. Bryce Harper and Nick Castellanos hit home runs and Zack Wheeler allowed one run in seven dominant innings as the Phillies evened the series.
With the Cubs having a one-day game on Wednesday, the Brewers (87-64) have a chance to seal the win before tipoff. Milwaukee is 10 games ahead of Chicago.
Brewers first baseman Rhys Hoskins, who plays in the 2022 postseason, the last of his six seasons in Philadelphia, acknowledged it is an unusual situation.
“It’s weird. I’ve never really been in a situation like that,” Hoskins said of the prospect of taking the field as conference champions. “I was on a team that went to the playoffs and we kind of controlled our own destiny and … we won one game and it was decided.
“Obviously tomorrow’s schedule is a little bit out of our control,” he said. “In our minds, we still have to win the game here.”
The Phillies (91-60) dropped the magic number to four points in the National League East and clinched a playoff spot by one point. Philadelphia leads the Dodgers by two games with the best overall record in the National League. Milwaukee is two games behind Los Angeles. The top two teams get a bye in the first round of the playoffs.
Philadelphia also secured a deciding game against Milwaukee by winning three games in June.
“We definitely need a win here,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “We’re going to try to win the series (Wednesday), but beating these guys in a tiebreaker, I think the next game is going to be really important.”
Peralta allowed one run over five innings to earn the win in a 2-1 victory over Arizona State on Friday.
Peralta is 4-2 with a 2.84 ERA in his last seven starts. After pitching six innings in three of five starts in August, his longest outing was 5 1/3 innings in three starts this month.
Peralta is 0-2 with a 4.01 ERA in six career games against Philadelphia, including five starts.
Nola has won just once in his last 11 starts and is 1-4 since July 11, eventually losing to the Mets 11-3. He gave up five home runs in 15 innings in three starts this month.
Nola has started 13 career games against the Brewers and is 7-2 with a 2.76 ERA. He has played once this season against the Milwaukee Bucks, on June 5 as the Phillies beat the Milwaukee Bucks 2-0 and the game was scoreless through seven innings.
After going 30 consecutive games without a home run, Harper has hit three home runs in his last four games.
With Tuesday’s win, the Phillies improved to 34-1 on the season when starting pitchers pitched at least seven innings, including 34 consecutive innings. It is the longest winning streak in Phillies history and the second-longest in major league history, trailing only the 1942 Cardinals (42 consecutive games).
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