Brewers magic number: Strong weekend in Arizona moves Crew closer to promised land

The Milwaukee Brewers have moved within striking distance of this year's NL Central crown. As the days go by, the "magic number" gets smaller and smaller, and a strong weekend in the desert versus the Diamondbacks has shortened it even further.

The Crew rolled into Arizona and took two out of three against the NL West hopefuls. As is usually the case with the Brewers, they always take care of business against fellow teams in the thick of a playoff hunt.

Friday's game was a low-scoring 2-1 victory over the Dbacks, but Saturday's 15-8 offensive outburst was a welcomed sight, as was the Brewers' 10-run effort on Sunday that ultimately resulted in a 11-10 loss to the Dbacks.

At this point, every series win is a major, well ... win for the Brewers. Now they get to shift their attention to one of the most dangerous teams in baseball: the Philadelphia Phillies.

Brewers Magic Number: 3

The Brewers have been riding the red-hot bats of Jackson Chourio, Willy Adames and William Contreras for months now. Over the weekend series, each of them hit over .308 while Brice Turang also went 6-for-16 (.462) across the three games. It seems that the Brewers' offense is coming together and firing on all cylinders at just the right time.

Freddy Peralta made a strong five-inning, one-run start over the weekend while Tobias Myers and DL Hall, the other two starters, faltered a bit. While the Brewers offense exploded in Arizona, the pitching staff left quite a bit to be desired. If Milwaukee's own offense wasn't so busy scoring runs and dominating opposing pitching, this series would've gone from promising to embarrassing real quick.

Heading into the new week, the Brewers will be tasked with taking on the Phillies while the second-place Cubs are going to face off against the Oakland A's. While the A's were the laughingstock of the league not so long ago, they're primed to play postseason spoiler as they travel to Chicago for three games. All the Brewers need is a strong showing against the Phillies and a second consecutive division title is in the bag.