Game Thread #152: Milwaukee Brewers (87-64) vs. Philadelphia Phillies (91-60)

The NL Central champs look to win series with Phillies

This afternoon, the Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago Cubs 5-3. With that Cubs loss, the Milwaukee Brewers officially clinched the National League Central. They’re the first team to clinch a postseason position this season. That’s the big news out of Milwaukee today.

But they’ve got a game to play! A game that could matter, too. Their chances may be remote, but the Brewers could still improve their postseason position this season; they’re two games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers and four behind the Phillies for the best record in the National League. If Milwaukee could chase one of those teams down, they would be rewarded with a first-round bye. Catching Philadelphia is a long shot (even with a win tonight), but a loss would make it nearly impossible. (The Dodgers are a different story, but every game counts with so few remaining.)

Philly will send Aaron Nola to the mound for this game, a day after Zack Wheeler (the likely second-place finisher in NL Cy Young voting) carved the Brewers up. Nola and Wheeler have been a potent one-two punch in the Phillies’ rotation for years, and Nola has somewhat quietly put together a fantastic career. It’s an imperfect way to measure impact, but since Nola’s debut in 2015, the only pitchers with more bWAR are Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Gerrit Cole, Jacob deGrom, and Clayton Kershaw.

Milwaukee’s counter will be Freddy Peralta, whose last outing was a scary one in which he struggled with a familiar foe, inefficiency — he allowed a ton of baserunners (six hits, four walks in just five innings), but he was able to squeeze his way out of trouble all night and allowed just one run. As the Brewers look to set up their rotation for the postseason, they will surely feel better with one or two really good starts from their main guy.

The fact that they’ve clinched doesn’t appear to be affecting the Brewers lineup tonight, as all the usual suspects are present. The one different name in there is Jake Bauers, who will serve as the DH this evening. (A bit odd to see him there instead of at first base, though I wonder if the Brewers are letting Rhys Hoskins play first base instead of DH so that he can hang out with his friends at first base.)

First pitch is at 6:40 p.m. CT on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network. This game is also the MLB Network Showcase Game, so if you’re out of market, you can find it there as well.