The Milwaukee Brewers with a key hit by former Red Jesse Winker rallied to beat the Reds 4-3.
Four straight losses to the NL Central leading Brewers put the Reds behind by two games in the standings.
"You just move on. It was a tough series," David Bell said. "They played us tough back in Milwaukee too. You keep it to what it is. You can't make too much of it. They played great. We struggled this weekend. There is not question about that. We've been good offensively all year. We will get back on track."
"I think (sweep) will fire us up more," Lively said. "When we play them the next time. We're not going to let it happen again for sure."
The Reds' broke a 28-inning scoring drought in the second inning. Jonathan India singled on a 3-2 pitch and scored on Joey Votto's double to left center.
"Scoring runs after a few games can seem like a really long time. Getting back on the board was great. There were definitely signs. It was a good day in that respect. It felt like the kind of game where typically we keep scoring. We weren't able to do that. It made it tough on our bullpen for sure," Bell said.
The ejection is the 25th of Bell's career matching his uniform number.
Christian Yelich homered for the second straight day to tie the score in the third. It was Yelich's 13th home run of the year. The last four runs for the Brewers have scored on solo home runs.
Jake Fraley followed Matt McLain's second hit of the game with his 12th home run of the season as the Reds regained the lead in the bottom of the third.
Ben Lively the Reds' starter allowed the Yelich home run but only two other hits. He felt discomfort before completing the fourth inning. The Reds elected to bring in Derek Law to start the fifth inning.
"I threw up a little bit. I was a little dehydrated or something. I hit me real quick. We were just being a little precautionary. I tried to stay in. We went the smart route. I cramped up a lot of little things added up," Lively said. "I was trying to stay in. They were being smart about it for sure. I like to play smart when other people tell me too."
The Brewers closed the gap against Law. A single by Andrew Monasterio and a walk to Brice Turang set up a run scoring single by Yelich.
Freddie Benevides went to Ian Gibaut, who got William Contreras to line into a double play.
The Reds put two on with two outs against Houser. Steer singled off the glove of Monasterio at third for his first hit in 23 at bats. Brewer manager Craig Counsell brought in Bryse Wilson from the bullpen.
Wilson sent the game into the seventh when Tyler Stephenson flied out.
Lucas Sims bailed out Fernando Cruz who walked two with two outs, getting the hot hitting Contreras to fly out.
The Brewers tied the game against Sims in the eighth. Willie Adames walked to start the inning. Jesse Winker singled off the base of the right field wall putting Adames on third with no outs when TJ Friedl tried to throw Adames out from the warning track. Owen Miller hit a sacrifice fly to center and pinch runner Tyrone Taylor took second base. Taylor represented the go-ahead run. The smart play would have been for Friedl to throw to second base.
"TJ was trying to make a play, Bell said. "We encourage our outfielders. We encourage all of our defenders to make plays. To not be fearful of not making plays. In that situation, If he had to do it over again, he makes the throw to second base and tries to keep the runner at first. So TJ will learn from that. He's such a smart player. He does so many things right on the baseball field. He will definitely learn from that."
Devin Williams, the Brewers All-Star closer, picked up his 23 save of the year.
"He (Lively) is pitching great," Bell said. "Unfortunately, we had to do the smart thing there and get him out of the game. The heat got to him and if you ask him, he would say he could keep going. We did the right thing for Ben but it was definitely a factor in the game, having to go to our bullpen that early."
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