MILWAUKEE -- Ten unopened cases of beer sat outside the visitors¡¯ clubhouse on Wednesday night at American Family Field.

The Phillies hoped to open those cases and toast a third consecutive trip to the postseason. Instead, following a 2-1 walk-off loss to the Brewers, they postponed their toast until no earlier than Thursday night at Citi Field in New York.

The Phillies can clinch their first NL East title in 13 years no earlier than Friday night.

Whenever it happens -- the Phillies have a seven-game lead over the Mets with 10 games to play -- they will celebrate properly with loads of champagne and beer.

The Brewers celebrated with beer and champagne on Wednesday night. They clinched the NL Central in the afternoon when the Cubs lost to the A¡¯s. But Milwaukee still had something to play for at night, and it showed.

The Brewers are trying to catch the Dodgers for the NL¡¯s No. 2 seed, which would give Milwaukee a first-round bye and home-field advantage in the NL Division Series. In any case, the Phillies and Brewers could meet again in the NL Championship Series.

¡°Maybe,¡± Phillies right-hander Aaron Nola said. ¡°We¡¯ve got to keep winning. If that point comes, that point comes.¡±

Nola pitched brilliantly against Milwaukee. He allowed one run in seven innings, allowing only three hits and one walk and striking out nine, successfully rebounding from two consecutive substandard starts.

¡°Everything felt good,¡± Nola said. ¡°My command was pretty good. I felt like I was getting early outs. I went deep in a game. I feel like it¡¯s been a while.¡±

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The Phillies entered the night with a 34-game winning streak when their starter pitched seven or more innings. It was the longest streak in franchise history and the second-longest streak in MLB history. The 1942 Cardinals won 42 in a row.

Nola made his only mistake in the fifth inning, when a 2-2 curveball found the middle of the plate and Rhys Hoskins hit a solo homer to left field.

"Right when he hit, I just kind of felt like I've seen that a lot on our side from him,¡± Nola said about his former Phillies teammate. ¡°I've seen that guy hit 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. I obviously know that. I've seen it for many years.¡±

But the Phillies¡¯ streak ended, not because Nola gave up a homer to Hoskins, but because the Phillies¡¯ offense couldn¡¯t get anything going. They struck out 16 times on Wednesday. They also struck out 16 times in Tuesday¡¯s 5-1 victory.

It¡¯s too much.

¡°We¡¯ve got to get back to our two-strike approach, use the field and eliminate chase,¡± Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.

It was the first time in franchise history the Phillies had struck out 16-plus times in consecutive games.

¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s anything to freak out about or anything like that,¡± said Alec Bohm, who hit a solo homer to left in the second inning. ¡°Obviously, we could put the ball in play a little bit more. But we¡¯re also going up against some pretty good pitching. Would it be nice to put the ball in play a couple more times? Yeah, for sure. But I don¡¯t think it¡¯s anything we¡¯re going to bang our heads against a wall about.

¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a thing that we¡¯re going to keep seeing. Obviously, we have a lot of big hitters in our lineup. A lot of power. A lot of guys who are going to have their strikeouts from time to time.¡±

The only concern is that the Phillies swung and missed a lot last fall in the NLCS, ending their season short of a World Series championship.

This group believes it can avoid a similar struggle.

¡°Just the track record, and obviously we take pride in being able to hit good pitching,¡± Bohm said. ¡°Typically, we do a pretty good job of it. Obviously, a couple games this series we did punch out a lot. But we¡¯re also able to put up five runs in a game punching out [16] times. I think it doesn¡¯t always tell the whole story, but I do think obviously we¡¯re going to not want to keep doing that.¡±

¡°I like our lineup against anybody,¡± Thomson said. ¡°I¡¯m confident in that.¡±