MILWAUKEE -- If you've been a baseball fan long enough, you know to expect the unexpected.

So a day after the Reds made three first-inning runs stand in their seventh shutout of the season, only in baseball could it make sense when the very next day, nine runs behind one of the best pitchers in the game wouldn't be enough for a victory.

That's the position the Reds found themselves in Wednesday afternoon at Miller Park where a showdown between pitchers with two of the top-three earned run averages in the National League turned into a slugfest and left Cincinnati with an 11-9 loss to the Brewers.

"Hopefully somebody enjoyed that game today," Reds manager David Bell said. "We certainly didn't because we didn't win the game but I can appreciate what a great game it was."

• Box score

For the second straight day, the Reds' offense jumped on Milwaukee early as Tucker Barnhart's three-run homer in the second gave them a 5-0 lead over Milwaukee starter Zach Davies, who hadn't allowed more than two runs in a start this season and began the day second in the National League with a 1.54 ERA.

Milwaukee got one run back in the bottom of the inning on Keston Hiura's leadoff home run and after Derek Dietrich made it a 6-1 game with a solo shot in the third, the Brewers' bats sprung to life against Luis Castillo -- whose 1.90 mark to begin the day was third-best in the NL.

Mike Moustakas led off the bottom of the inning with a solo home run, Yasmani Grandal drew a walk and Ben Gamel was hit by a pitch. Hernan Perez's single loaded the bases for Orlando Arcia, who cut the deficit to 6-4 with a two-run single to left, bringing Castillo's day to an early end.

"Everything just looked a little more difficult today than it had been for him," Bell said. "He'd been making it look easy all year. Sometimes, when you don't start out great, you end up trying too hard. A few pitches here or there and the outcome could have been different."

Castillo had allowed more than two runs just once this season but tied his season high with four earned runs on five hits and three walks over 2 2/3 innings of work, with a pair of home runs.

He dominated the Brewers back in April, holding them to a run while striking out nine over seven innings of work with a devastating change-up, but that pitch just wasn't working for him Wednesday afternoon.

"I was using it a little bit in the first inning but I didn't trust that pitch today and I was using it in more fastball counts," Castillo said through a team translator. "When you don't have your best stuff, you just have to go out there and battle and just try to help the team win."

Eric Thames tied the game with a two-run single in the fifth off Michael Lorenzen, but the Reds took the lead right back in the sixth on Jose Iglesias's two run single off Junior Guerra.

The lead wouldn't last long though as the Reds' bullpen, which led the National League with a 3.31 ERA entering play Wednesday, gave up five runs in the sixth, including a two-run homer by Grandal.

"Our bullpen has been so good all year but days like this are going to happen and they're going to bounce back," Bell said.

Still, the Reds had a chance. Down 11-8 to start the seventh, Jeremy Jeffress plunked Curt Casali with the bases loaded to make it a two-run game. Phil Ervin followed with a line drive down the line in right that looked like it hit line but was ultimately ruled a foul ball after the umpires reviewed the play for nearly a minute.

Ervin swung and missed Jeffress' next offering, which sailed past Grandal to the backstop, catching Casali off-guard and stuck just off first base for an easy out ending the inning.

"As a runner, you just react because if you wait around, you're not going to make it," Bell said. "The hard part is to run with your head up. Curt reacted there and they got out of the inning."

The loss snapped a three-game winning streak against NL Central opponents for the Reds who have dropped four of five meetings with the Brewers this season and eight of the last 10 between the two teams overall.