Phillies strike out 16 more times and are injured in Hoskins loss

Phillies strike out 16 more times and are hurt by Hoskins in loss. Originally published on NBC Sports Philadelphia

MILWAUKEE — The Phillies could have checked their first target off their list with a win in Milwaukee on Wednesday night, but fell short in a nail-biting 2-1 loss to the Brewers, ending their potential playoff series preview.

The Phillies would have officially clinched a playoff spot had they won the series finale, but the magic number remains one. The Phillies will clinch the playoff spot with their next win or loss against the Mets or Braves.

Their next series is against the Mets – four games Thursday through Sunday at Citi Field – which also gives the Phils a chance this weekend to win their first NL East title since 2011.

The Phillies scored in the second inning, the Brewers answered in the fifth with a solo home run by Rhys Hoskins and left in the ninth inning when Jake Bauers hit a single against Carlos Estevez after a triple by Jackson Chourio.

Aaron Nola did his best, allowing just three hits and one run in seven innings with nine strikeouts. It was a great comeback performance after allowing 11 runs and four home runs in nine innings in his previous two starts.

“There are certain guys that make big plays and he's one of them,” manager Rob Thomson said. “I'm not too worried about him having two bad performances in a row.”

Two of the three hits came from Hoskins, who hit a double in the second inning and a solo home run in the fifth. The Brewers have hit just two home runs in 54 innings against the Phillies this season, and both came from Hoskins – on Wednesday against Nola and on June 3 against Zack Wheeler.

“When he hit the ball, I felt like I've seen that a lot from our side,” Nola said. “I've seen this guy hit curveballs a lot. Honestly, it didn't surprise me. He's got a good swing. He's a tough hitter. I've seen that for many years.”

The Phils' lineup managed 3 of 23 hits with runners in batting position and 40 strikeouts in the series.

“I don't think it's anything to panic about,” Alec Bohm said. “Obviously we could put the ball in play a little more often, but we're up against a pretty good pitching staff there. Would it be nice to put the ball in play a few more times here and there? Sure. But I don't think it's something we're going to bang our heads against the wall about and figure out why we're getting knocked out so often or anything like that.”

“When you face a good pitching team towards the end of the year, everything gets more intense and people notice it a little more. But I don't think we'll see that again and again.

“We pride ourselves on having good pitchers. We usually do that pretty well. In a couple of games this series, we obviously struck out a lot, but we scored five runs in one game and struck out 17 times, so that's not the whole story. But I think we obviously don't want to keep doing that.”

Bohm got the Phillies on the scoreboard with a solo home run just over the left-center field wall against Freddy Peralta in the third inning, a beautiful line-drive swing with a slider deep and over the middle. It was Bohm's 14th home run, his 90th RBI and his first major hit since returning from the injured list on Sunday.

But after that, chances against Peralta and the Brewers' top-notch bullpen were few and far between. The Phillies' only hits after the second inning were leadoff singles in the sixth and eighth innings by Trea Turner and Kyle Schwarber.

The best chance came in the sixth inning, when Bryce Harper followed a long batting performance against right-hander Joe Ross with a walk on Turner's single. The next batter, Nick Castellanos, struck out after three pitches. The Phillies twice tried to double steal with Bohm at the plate, but he fouled on both pitches, so his eventual fly ball to deep right-center field put runners on second and third base instead of bringing one home. A groundout later, the Brewers were out of the inning.

The Phillies still accomplished one of their goals in Milwaukee by winning at least once to secure the head-to-head tiebreaker. They are 91-61 with 10 games left – four at the Mets, three at the Cubs and three at the Nationals. The Phillies lead the Dodgers by two games for the best playoff seed in the standings, and they are four games ahead of the Brewers.

They will give the ball to Taijuan Walker for Thursday's series opener against the Mets after he was out of the roster for three weeks.