MILWAUKEE -- Freddy Peralta delivered his finest start of the season on a day that pitching and defense, the Brewers’ strength all season, kept Milwaukee atop the National League Central. 

Peralta matched his career high with 13 strikeouts in six electric innings on a hot and humid day at American Family Field, and Tyrone Taylor hit a two-run home run in the seventh in a 3-0 Brewers win over the Reds that prevented Milwaukee from slipping behind Cincinnati in the division race.

Instead, with a Major League-leading 12th team shutout victory this season and a 10th win in 13 head-to-head matchups against Cincinnati, including victories in which they kept the Reds scoreless in four of the past seven of those games, the Brewers pushed 1 1/2 games ahead of the second-place Reds as the teams’ season series came to a close. 

“For us, all games are very important. But you can tell the difference in the series we played in Cincinnati and this one,” Peralta said. “We knew that we had to do our best in this series because we know the team we’re playing right now, they have a lot of energy.”

With a fresh bullpen and an off-day Thursday before a road trip that takes the Brewers through the Trade Deadline, it was a straightforward call to pull Peralta at 89 pitches in favor of what has become a familiar formula: Elvis Peguero in the seventh, Joel Payamps in the eighth for his 18th consecutive appearance without an earned run and Devin Williams in the ninth for his 26th save and his ninth straight scoreless outing.

Together, those pitchers matched the franchise record by striking out 18 batters in a nine-inning game. They’ve done that five times in 55 seasons, including twice this month against the Reds.

“I was trying to count them, but [Peralta] struck out so many guys I couldn’t count them fast enough,” Taylor said. “It was just a good job by him today, and it set the pace for us.”

Lacking his best results with his slider last time out against the Braves, when he surrendered six runs on six hits and three walks, including a pair of homers in five innings, Peralta came out firing with his full arsenal against the Reds. He struck out his first five batters on 18 pitches before Joey Votto’s single dashed dreams of a 27-strikeout perfect game.

Then Peralta kept going. He had multiple strikeouts in each of the first three innings and five of his six innings in all. Peralta had double-digit strikeouts by the end of the fifth, and matched not only the season high for a Brewers starter (also Corbin Burnes in Cincinnati in the first game out of the All-Star break), but his career high with strikeout No. 13 to end the sixth on Peralta’s 89th pitch.

His other 13-strikeout game was unforgettable: It was Peralta’s Major League debut on Mother’s Day at Coors Field in 2018.

“I knew that in the first inning, I had the side, but I had no idea after that I was that high,” Peralta said. “I figured it out later when I finished. Somebody came to the training room, and I was like, ‘Damn!’”

He’s a different pitcher today. When he debuted, Peralta threw almost exclusively four-seam fastballs, manipulating the grip so the pitch had varying characteristics. Now, he is pitching. In the first inning alone, Peralta got strikeouts on a fastball, a changeup and a slider.

“It’s crazy,” he said. “Because I had a conversation with [pitching coach Chris Hook] 3-4 days ago, and we talked about that game, and look, I had the same amount of strikeouts. I feel really good about it.”

Peguero and Payamps passed the scoreless game off to Williams, who finished a near-perfect regular season against the Reds: Nine appearances, 8 2/3 innings, seven saves in seven chances and zero hits or runs allowed. Adding to the challenge, all of the Reds-Brewers games were bunched in June and July, giving Cincinnati’s hitters multiple looks at Milwaukee’s All-Star closer.

“For me, it’s a throwback to when I worked the alternate site [in 2020 during the pandemic], and you were playing intersquad every day,” Brewers bullpen coach Jim Henderson said. “Sometimes you get the other guys’ number.

“Fortunately, that familiarity worked out for us. I think our starters as well, we’re doing a good job of mixing up the game plan. We’re not being too predictable, and the relievers are following that, too.”

If the Brewers and Reds meet again this year, it would be in the postseason. The Brewers made sure that as they completed the season series, it was the Reds looking up.

“They all count,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “When you are directly head to head, it’s a loss for them and a win for us. It makes your job one game easier.”