In Milwaukee, Phillies can achieve their first significant goal of 2024 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Milwaukee Brewers? Sounds vaguely familiar. Aren’t they the team with a mascot who shimmies down a twisting slide after home runs? AKA the Brew Crew? Used to be the Seattle Pilots? Also used to be in the American League? Plays “The Beer Barrel Polka” during the seventh inning stretch? Bratwurst? Robin Yount? Any of that ring a bell?

When it comes to Phillies rivalries, in other words, the Brewers barely move the needle. They were a speed bump on the way to winning the 2008 World Series. They’re the team that signed Rhys Hoskins as a free agent last winter. That’s about it.

Temporarily, at least, that’s about to change. For the next three nights at American Family Field, it’s Milwaukee standing directly between the Phils and achieving the first significant team objective they had when they first gathered in Clearwater in February: to win the division and avoid playing in the wild-card round.

Even though the Phillies have had success playing the extra series, making it to the World Series in 2022 and coming within one win of going back last year, manager Rob Thomson has made it clear that getting five days off after the regular season ends September 29 in Washington is a top priority.

Winning two of three in the just-completed series against the Mets mattered because the Phillies are trying to amass enough wins to finish with baseball’s best record, which earns home-field advantage throughout the postseason.

Catcher J.T. Realmuto said it was like a playoff atmosphere. “These are the types of games you’re going to play in the postseason. These are the type of the opponents we’re going to be playing,” he said. “It’s no secret we love playing here at The Bank and feel like we have the best homefield advantage in baseball. The one-seed is very important to us and we’re going to play as well as we can until we get it.”

The upcoming series in the Badger State, however, presents a more immediate opportunity and more straight-line impact to determine how the teams are seeded when the regular season concludes in two weeks.

Barring a cataclysm, the Phillies will win the National League East, the Brewers the Central and the Dodgers the West. The team with the third-best record will have to compete in the wild card round to advance.

The Phillies presently hold a four-game edge over Milwaukee. So here’s what’s at stake:

• Since they swept Milwaukee at The Bank the first week in June, the Phillies need just one win to clinch the tie-breaker.

• If the Phillies sweep, they’d be 8 up with 10 games left to play. Any combination thereafter of Phillies wins and Brewers losses totaling 3 guarantees a first-round bye.

• If the Phillies win two of three, that Magic Number is 5.

• If the Phillies lose two of three, it’s 7.

• If the Phillies get swept, it’s 9. And the tiebreaker would revert to best record within the division. Right now, Milwaukee is 30-19 against the NLC with just three games (at Pittsburgh) remaining. The Phillies are 26-18 with four at New York and the final weekend at Washington left.

Even though the Phillies took care of the Brewers more than three months ago, it’s worth noting that each of those games was decided by one or two runs, one in extra innings. Also, the venue matters. The Phillies are 52-25 (.675) at Citizens Bank Park this year and 38-34 (.528) everywhere else.

Milwaukee has a better record (50-37) and run differential (+76) since leaving Citizens Bank Park than the Phillies (46-40, +15). And there are two notable reasons for that.

Rookie outfielder Jackson Chourio was hitting .211 with a .592 OPS through that series, but has been raking ever since. Going into Sunday, in his next 81 games, he hit .308/.909. Shortstop Willy Adames left Philadelphia with 9 homers in 63 games and then hit 23 in his subsequent 86 games.

The pitching matchups also offer some behind-the-numbers intrigue. Ranger Suarez (12-6, 3.05) will face Aaron Civale (6-8, 4.57) Monday. That looks good on paper, but Suarez has something to prove. His earned run average is 6.02 in his last eight starts.

In Game 2 it will be Zack Wheeler (15-6, 2.60) vs. Frankie Montas (7-10, 4.49) followed by Aaron Nola (12-8, 3.62) vs. Freddy Peralta (11-8, 3.75). Nola, too, will be looking to right himself. He’s failed to complete five innings in each of his last two starts while giving up a total of 11 earned runs.

All games start at 7:40 p.m. EDT on NBC Sports Philadelphia.

MILWAUKEE — It may look like someone took a video of their pocket, but that little dot in the middle of the surrounding black void is actually the International Space Station (ISS) flying over Milwaukee Saturday.

The ISS orbit around Earth has taken it above the Milwaukee skyline many times in the past, and it will “swing” by us many times in the future, but it is always cool to see just how far humans can go — about 248 miles above the surface.

It may have, arguably, one of the best views out of any job but it is no easy commute to get there and back.

Stranded astronauts — Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams — recently came into the public eye after the spacecraft carrying them to the station ran into several problems during the flight, and what was supposed to be an eight-day mission became several months.

The pair is now waiting for transport from the SpaceX Dragon capsule after the Boeing Starliner was remotely flown back without the astronauts.

Wilmore and Williams are expected back to Earth in February, but in the meantime, they are making the most of their time above ground and plan to vote in the upcoming November election.

If you want up-to-date coverage on the election, check out TMJ4’s America Votes, here, and vote like astronauts.

How the ISS came to be:

1984 — Ronald Reagan ordered NASA to build the ISS within the following 10 years. In his State of the Union Address, he said “Just as the oceans opened up a new world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential for commerce today.”

1998 — The Zarya Control Module and the first section of the station in space was launched aboard a Russian Proton rocket in November. The First US built section, Unity Node 1 was launched in December and was connected with Zarya. This was the first step in building the orbiting laboratory.

2000 — The first crew stayed in the station. NASA astronaut Bill Shepherd and cosmonauts Yuri Gidzenko and Sergi Krikalev spent four months and according to the ISS National Laboratory, “began what is now more than 20 years of continuous human presence in space.”

2001 — US Lab Module was added which added a little over 40 percent of living space and this section is still the main area for US research.

2008 — Columbus Laboratory, the European lab, was added to the station in February. Kibo laboratory module, a Japanese lab, was added to the station.

If anyone would like to keep an eye on the sky for the ISS in the future, a sighting schedule is available for stargazers.

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Game one of the series between the Brewers and Diamondbacks went about the opposite way it was expected to go. The Brewers’ pitchers held the Diamondbacks to just one run, while their pitchers mostly kept the Brewers in check. The Brewers got two runs across and that was enough for the win.

Tonight, the Brewers have Tobias Myers on the mound. He’s coming off of an 11-strikeout performance against the Rockies, where he allowed just one run. He’ll face Brandon Pfaadt of the Diamondbacks, who has allowed at least three runs and eight hits in each of his last five starts. Pfaadt is also a high-strikeout and low-walk pitcher.

Brice Turang is back in the leadoff spot for tonight’s game, with Jackson Chourio moving to second in the lineup and Garrett Mitchell moving to fourth and playing DH. Jake Bauers is in the lineup and playing first base tonight, and Blake Perkins will patrol center field.

For the scoreboard watchers tonight, here are the matchups of importance. The Phillies already won over the Mets today. The Dodgers and Braves have just started in Atlanta, and the Cubs are playing the Rockies at the same time as the Brewers tonight.

Here are the full lineups. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. on Bally Sports Wisconsin and the Brewers Radio Network.