Milwaukee Brewers NL Central Magic Number After Shutout Loss to the Marlins

Milwaukee Brewers manager Craig Counsell tried something a little different to start Wednesday night's game against the Miami Marlins. To his credit, the move itself ended up working even if the end result wasn't what he wanted.

Counsell used a bullpen "opener" to start yesterday's game as he deployed hard-throwing reliever Trevor Megill to face the first three Marlins batters. After breezing through the first inning, Megill gave way to Colin Rea, who took over for the next 4.2 innings.

The gambit generally seemed to work. The Miami offense was kept at bay as Rea gave up one run and embattled reliever Andrew Chaffin gave up another, which was all the production the Marlins would get on the night. Unfortunately, that was all they would need.

While the Brewers would put up seven hits and three walks, they wouldn't be able to translate that to any runs on a night where they went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position and struck out 12 times. In the end, it was a quite 2-0 shutout loss for Milwaukee.

What is the Milwaukee Brewers magic number?

Despite the poorly timed shutout loss on Wednesday, the Brewers were able to see their magic number drop to 13 prior to the game thanks to a little help by the Colorado Rockies who knocked off the Chicago Cubs in a day game at Coors Field.

The Cubs got off to a good start in the game, scoring three runs in the first three innings on two sacrifice flies and an RBI double, staking themselves to an early 3-0 lead. That's where the good vibes stopped for the Northsiders, however.

The Rockies would go off for seven unanswered runs after that with five of them (three earned) coming off of Cubs starter Jameson Taillon. Six of the seven runs came courtesy of four homers, all hit by different Colorado players. When the dust settled, the Rockies had themselves a 7-3 victory and a series win over Chicago.

With both teams losing, the Brewers maintained a four-game lead over the Cubs heading into Thursday's games. Chicago has an off day, so that lead can drop no further than 3.5 games with a Brewers loss or rise to 4.5 with a win.

It's a day game matchup as the Brewers try to secure the four-game series win for a second time on Thursday. Adrian Houser makes his return from the injured list to start the game, which is scheduled to kick off at 1:10 CDT.