Brewers magic number: Hoskins clutch homer gets Brewers even closer to division title

The Milwaukee Brewers are inching closer and closer to a second consecutive NL Central title. They're on their final west coast road trip and began a three game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, a likely playoff team.

Like a lot of the recent Brewers games, it was a low scoring affair, but the Brewers were able to make Rhys Hoskins' two run homer in the 4th last and held on for a 2-1 victory over the Diamondbacks. Freddy Peralta got into some trouble but made it through five innings, then the bullpen locked it down from there with Joel Payamps, Jared Koenig, Trevor Megill, and Devin Williams.

They came into the day with a magic number of seven. That win, combined with the Cubs losing 9-5 to the Colorado Rockies dropped the Brewers magic number down to five.

Brewers Magic Number: 5

The magic number means any combination of five Brewers wins and Cubs losses will result in the Brewers clinching the NL Central. That could mean one Brewers win and four Cubs losses, it could mean the Brewers win five straight if the Cubs also win five straight.

With 15 games to go on the schedule, the Brewers need to win just a third of them and they will clinch the division, even if the Cubs somehow win out.

The Brewers got some other good news on the scoreboard last night. Both the Phillies and Dodgers also lost their games, which aids Milwaukee in their pursuit of one of the top two seeds in the National League playoffs and avoid the Wild Card round. Phillies lost 11-3 to the Mets while the Dodgers lost 6-2 to the Braves.

Milwaukee now sits just two games back of the Dodgers for the 2nd seed and three games back of the Phillies for the top seed. Following this series in Arizona, the Brewers will return home to American Family Field to face the Phillies, giving them a golden opportunity to make up ground in the race for the top seeds.

The earliest the Brewers can possibly clinch is Monday, and that's if the Brewers sweep the Diamondbacks and the Cubs get swept by the Rockies. With a week-long homestand starting on Monday, it's looking highly likely that Milwaukee will clinch the NL Central title at home, but there's still work to do to chase down one of those top two NL seeds.