Phillies beat Brewers to lower their magic number, D-backs’ elimination number to 2

The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Milwaukee Brewers on Tuesday, 6-4, dropping their magic number to clinch a National League Wild Card spot to two.

That means the Diamondbacks’ elimination number also dropped to two. Any combination of D-backs losses or Phillies wins that adds up to two puts that dreaded “E” next to Arizona in the standings.

The D-backs entered the final week of the regular season trailing Philadelphia by four games and the San Diego Padres by five with six contests to play.

They were counting on the Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers to win series over the Phillies and Padres, respectively, in order to have a chance at making a miracle happen in the final weekend of the regular season.

The Diamondbacks likely have to win all of their remaining games, including three in San Diego to end the campaign. The D-backs started their final week with a 7-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.

How did the Phillies beat the Brewers?

After the Brewers scored twice in the sixth inning off Phillies starter Zack Wheeler to tie the game at 3-3, Bryson Stott hit a tiebreaking RBI single with two outs in the eighth off Colton Gordon. Garrett Mitchell’s throw went to third base to try to get Alec Bohm running from first, but the ball ricocheted off Bohm’s foot, and both he and Luis Arraez scored to make it 5-3.

Jhoan Duran earned his 33rd save.

Starter Aaron Nola (4.49 ERA) will start for Philadelphia on Wednesday, while Logan Henderson (2.51 ERA) will pitch for Milwaukee.

The Phillies began Tuesday trailing the Padres and Cubs by one game for the top spot in the NL Wild Card. Philadelphia holds the tiebreaker over San Diego but not Chicago.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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