Brewers’ Jake Bauers hits walk-off single, preventing the Phillies from clinching a playoff spot

MILWAUKEE — Before the Brewers took the field for the series finale against the Phillies on Wednesday, they had already locked up the National League Central.

A Cubs loss to Oakland that afternoon had brought Milwaukee's magic number down to zero. Several Phillies exchanged hugs and handshakes of congratulations with old teammate Rhys Hoskins before batting practice.

The Phillies will have to wait a bit longer for their own celebrations, however. They had the opportunity to secure a postseason bid and take a step closer towards their own divisional title with a victory on Wednesday, but a walk-off single from Jake Bauers delayed that to another day and lifted the Brewers over the Phillies, 2-1.

» READ MORE: Brandon Marsh among the Phillies getting extra work on bunting to prepare for the postseason

With the game deadlocked at 1-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Carlos Estévez allowed a leadoff triple to Jackson Chourio, who would come around to score on Bauers' hit.

The Phillies' offense squandered a bounceback outing for starting pitcher Aaron Nola by only mustering four hits and striking out 16 times. Their only run came via a solo shot from Alec Bohm . The Phillies struck out 40 times across the three-game series.

"We have a lot of big hitters in our lineup, a lot of power guys that are gonna have their strikeouts from time to time," Bohm said. "I think the last couple days, it's just been the group as a whole striking out. So it's a little more noticeable."

Nola pitched seven complete innings, rebounding from his last two starts where he failed to get out of the fifth. He gave up a leadoff four-pitch walk to Brice Turang in the first inning, but settled in after that. He issued no further walks, and allowed just three hits.

"Everything felt pretty good, good four-seam. Command was pretty good," Nola said. "They're definitely a grindy team. I faced them earlier this year, and I kind of knew what they were about coming into the game, so just trying to execute my pitches and get first-pitch strikes and get the leadoff guy out, because I know pretty much most of the team runs, and they're pretty fast and athletic."

Nola's focus after his last outing had been eliminating "the big inning," where the mistakes pile up and the opponent runs up the score. He was successful in that endeavor — even when Hoskins tied things up with a solo home run in the fifth inning, Nola bounced back quickly, and retired the next nine hitters. He finished with nine strikeouts, his most since a Sept. 1 start against Atlanta.

"Right when [Hoskins] hit it, I just kind of felt like I've seen that a lot on our side from him," Nola said. "I've seen that guy take curveballs out plenty of times. Honestly, it didn't really surprise me that he hit that pitch right there, but he put a good swing on it. He's a tough at-bat."

» READ MORE: Bryce Harper's moon-shot homer for the Phillies puts his power outage in the past

His final punch out of the game was against Hoskins, who had bested him in his first two plate appearances with a ground-rule double and the homer. Nola sat his old teammate down in three pitches, catching him looking at a fastball on the edge of the zone.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson said on Wednesday afternoon that he thought Bohm's timing was off since he'd returned from his hand injury, and that he needed more reps.

Turns out, he didn't need that many. In his first at-bat of the game, Bohm fouled off one pitch before catching a slider down in the zone and lifting it over the center field wall. He made solid contact again in the sixth inning, though the ball stayed in the park and was snared by Brewers center fielder Garrett Mitchell.

"First couple of games, things were kind of slightly off here and there sometimes," Bohm said. "I still feel like I've missed a couple pitches over the middle that I've probably could've done something with. But overall, I feel like I felt comfortable in the box."

Orion Kerkering pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning to give the Phillies the opportunity to take the lead in the ninth, but Brewers closer Devin Williams struck out the side in order.

"We gotta get back to our two-strike approaches and using the field," Thomson said.

The Phillies' magic number for a postseason bid remains one, while the magic number for the divisional title stays at four.