Brewers magic number: Crew gets good news after rough loss in San Francisco

It sure was nice to see the Milwaukee Brewers get a rare west coast win on Tuesday, because that balanced out the brutal result as they continued their road trip on Wednesday.

Coming off a 3-2 win against the San Francisco Giants to open their series together, the Brewers were back at it last night with Colin Rea on the mound to start the game. Sadly, it did not take long before things got wildly out of hand for the Crew.

The Giants busted things open immediately with a four-run first inning and then followed that up with another four runs in the second, all of which scored off of Rea. The Brewers starter would last another couple innings before ultimately giving up 10 earned runs, tied for the most of any MLB starter this season and now possibly leaving his postseason rotation status in question.

The Brewers would only manage to muster a pair of runs while the Giants would go on to score three more of their own and when the dust settled, it was a domant 13-2 win for the home team. So Milwaukee wouldn't be able to reduce their magic number by themselves, but was it possible they were given some help on the night?

What is the Milwaukee Brewers' magic number to win the NL Central?

As it turns out, the Brewers did indeed get a little help in the form of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They were able to take the lead late and beat the Chicago Cubs at home, which means the Brewers' magic number to win the NL Central is now down to eight.

It looked like the Cubs might have some more magic in them after a comeback road win on Tuesday night. With the Dodgers up 7-3 in the fifth, the Cubs scored put up four in the frame to tie the game at seven. L.A. would score three more across the seventh and eighth innings, however, and a Chicago rally in the ninth would fall short, leading to a 10-8 win for the Dodgers.

That could be good or bad news depending on how you look at things, though. The odds of the Brewers not winning the NL Central are extremely low at this point, which means the No. 2 seed in the National League should really be the focus. And with a Dodgers win and Brewers loss, that means the former now has a 3.5-game lead over the latter for that spot.

But at least the Brewers have the knowledge that they are that much closer to he playoffs officially being a reality and they'll try to shave another game off the magic number tonight again in San Francisco. Frankie Montas starts the series finale for Milwaukee with first pitch again scheduled for 8:45CDT.