Brewers magic number: Crew inches closer to NL Central title despite loss

Sure, there are a lot of good teams out in the National League West. Yet for some reason, even the poorer teams in that division seem to be kryptonite for the Milwaukee Brewers during the 2024 season.

On Friday, the Brewers began a three-game home series against the Colorado Rockies, the last place team in the NL West. Combine the Rockies' 52-89 record coming into the game with the Crew's 41-27 record at home, and it seemed like a recipe for an easy win.

Instead, it was more woes for Milwaukee against western-based teams. The Brewers did jump out to an early lead when a Joey Ortiz single that scored Jake Bauers in the second gave the team a 1-0 lead.

Brewers starter Frankie Montas blazed through the Rockies lineup for the first five innings before finally getting bit in the sixth. With two men on base, first baseman Michael Toglia hit a towering three-run homer that would prove to be all Colorado ended up needing for the game.

The Brewers would tack on one more run late, but that would be all as they would lose the game 3-2. While the loss wouldn't get them any closer to the playoffs, it wasn't all bad news for the day in that regard.

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

Even though a home loss to a bad Rockies team is a bummer, Milwaukee got good news for their playoff hopes earlier in the day. With the second place Chicago Cubs losing a day game matchup at home, the Brewers saw their magic number to clinch a second straight NL Central title drop to 12. This is the team's magic number to clinch a playoff spot in general as well.

The Brewers have none other than the New York Yankees to thank for that development. Starter Luis Gil and three relievers held the Cubs to just one hit and four walks on the day while striking out 13 Chicago batters. RBI hits by Aaron Judge and Austin Wells in the third accounted for all the scoring on the day in a 3-0 loss for the northsiders.

What the loss unfortunately didn't help with was the Brewers' quest for a NL playoff bye. With the current No. 2 seed Dodgers losing yesterday as well, Milwaukee lost out on a chance to pull within two games of that playoff spot. Instead they remain three games back.

Despite everything that happened yesterday, the Brewers remain incredibly well positioned to make the playoffs. They continue to have the largest division lead in baseball at nine games over the Cubs, have the sixth best offense in MLB at 4.86 runs per game, and lead all teams in run differential at +134.

The Brewers will look to keep chipping away at their NL Central magic number on Saturday night in the second game of their home series against the Rockies. Tobias Myers starts for the Crew with first pitch scheduled for 6:10pm CDT.