MILWAUKEE -- There’s a reason the Reds aren’t ready to go from buyer to seller before the July 31 Trade Deadline. Just when you think they’re going to begin to fade in a big way, they perk back to life.

A 14-6 victory over the Brewers on Tuesday at Miller Park gives Cincinnati back-to-back wins with a chance to sweep the three-game series on Wednesday afternoon. The Reds have won three of their last four games since ending a four-game losing streak and coming out of the All-Star break flat at Colorado and Chicago and home vs. the Cardinals.

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Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams and general manager Nick Krall have not changed the game plan they had going into the break. Cincinnati isn’t looking to trade away players if it could hurt this year’s club but would still move someone if it made sense. There’s less desire for rental players with a focus on finding controllable players under contract that can help this season and beyond.

“I feel like we’re in a position that we can still get in this thing,” Reds left fielder Jesse Winker said. “Whatever we can do, whatever additions that can come and help us be a winning team, that would be awesome.”

On the heels of a two-homer game, including the game-winner on Monday, Eugenio Suarez delivered a two-run home run in the first inning on Tuesday that served as the catalyst for an outburst for Cincinnati. Against Brewers starter Zach Davies, Joey Votto hit a one-out double to left field before Suarez worked the count from 0-2 to lift a full-count fastball for a two-run home run to right field. It gave him a home run in three straight at-bats, his ninth in July and 27th overall.

And there is this important nugget: Suarez also has hit 10 of his homers this season in the first inning, which is the most in the Major Leagues.

"Ten? Thank you for telling me that. I don't pay attention to that,” Suarez replied. “I feel better. Happy.”

Two batters after Suarez, Winker made it a 4-0 game with an opposite-field two-run homer of his own off Davies. The Reds have outscored their opponents 82-45 in the first inning in 2019, and they lead the Majors in runs scored in the opening frame.

Important add-on runs came in the fifth inning as Suarez hit an RBI single to left field that scored Nick Senzel. Then, with the bases loaded and left-handed reliever Alex Claudio pitching for Milwaukee, the right-handed-hitting Phillip Ervin pinch-hit for the lefty-hitting Winker and hit a three-run triple down the right-field line. Ervin scored on Scooter Gennett’s sacrifice fly to make it a 9-0 game. In the sixth inning, Votto hit a two-run homer, his first since June 25 and ninth this season.

On Friday vs. the Cardinals, the Reds blew a 7-0 lead to the Cardinals when they gave up 10 runs in the sixth inning and wound up losing, 12-11. Against the Brewers, they scored 10 runs between the fifth and seventh innings.

“When you have a lead, it's almost like, you don't really relax just because the numbers will tell you one thing, the win expectancy tells you one thing, but we know,” Reds manager David Bell said. “We just know that any team -- a team like that, they're dangerous.”

Reds starter Tanner Roark had plenty of room to work and pitched five innings with two earned runs, six hits, one walk and five strikeouts. He gave up a pair of runs in the fifth while reliever Robert Stephenson allowed Manny Pina’s three-run homer in the sixth.

Now the Reds enter the final week before the Trade Deadline with optimism once again. A season-high nine games below .500 and nine games out of first place in the National League Central race on Sunday, they are 46-53 and have moved ahead of the Pirates for fourth place. They remain within striking distance of the Cubs and the second NL Wild Card.

Cincinnati has to find a way to not only get hot, but finally stay hot for a prolonged stretch.

Under the new rules, July 31 is now the only Trade Deadline, as there will be no August trades this year. If the Reds can add, this is their lone chance. They need to shore up their bullpen and offense, despite Suarez’s hot bat while Votto and Yasiel Puig have been heating up.

“From years past, it’s always been uplifting when you have a new guy come in, or a couple of new guys that you know about that are good, that have established themselves,” Roark said. “It brings a lot of confidence to every single person in here.”