CINCINNATI -- Offense one night, pitching and defense the next.With September looming and the postseason within reach, the Brewers will take victories any way they can get them."It would be hard to tell you we were playing by the same rules the past two days," quipped manager Craig Counsell.Mere hours

CINCINNATI -- Offense one night, pitching and defense the next.

With September looming and the postseason within reach, the Brewers will take victories any way they can get them.

"It would be hard to tell you we were playing by the same rules the past two days," quipped manager Craig Counsell.

Mere hours after outslugging the Reds in 10 innings Wednesday night, the Brewers pitched their way to a 2-1 win in 11 innings on Thursday afternoon at Great American Ball Park to clinch a third straight series victory. A big hit was required, of course, and it came from Lorenzo Cain , who lined the first pitch of the 11th off the top of the left-field wall and into the seats for a home run. That kept the Brewers a half-game back of the Cardinals in the National League Wild Card standings after St. Louis defeated Pittsburgh at night.

Cain's shot gave the Brewers 22 consecutive games with a home run at Great American Ball Park, the longest current streak for any club in a Major League stadium.

Credit an assist to Brewers third-base coach Ed Sedar, according to Cain.

"Eddie gave me a motivational speech going into it: 'Unless you do something about it, we're going to play 18 innings,'" Cain said. "So I took it to heart."

It took 22 hits and 13 runs to beat the Reds in Wednesday's rain-delayed marathon, and two runs on six hits plus Christian Yelich 's fifth-inning walk with the bases loaded on Thursday. That was largely thanks to Wade Miley and five Brewers relievers, who limited the Reds to six hits.

"I think the offense looked tired," Counsell said, "but you grind through it and you play good defense. We made pitches and Lo Cain got the big hit."

The Brewers needed length from Miley on Thursday after getting 1 1/3 innings from their starting pitcher in the series opener and grinding through the high-scoring marathon in Game 2. The left-hander delivered 7 1/3 innings, allowing one run on five hits with one walk and six strikeouts to lower his ERA to 2.18 in 11 Brewers starts.

Miley didn't allow a hit until Scott Schebler doubled leading off the fourth inning, and didn't allow multiple hits in an inning until the Reds tied the game on a disputed play at the plate in the seventh.

"I think we bought a couple guys up, but the bullpen was still thin down there, and those guys were worked pretty hard [Wednesday] night and the day before," said Miley. "I was just trying to go out there and give everything. I told Counsell I had 130 [pitches] in me." Counsell pulled Miley for Dan Jennings in the eighth at 105 pitches, but not after Miley became only the second Brewers starting pitcher to work in the eighth inning. Junior Guerra was the other on Aug. 3.

Jennings, Jordan Lyles , Corbin Burnes , Joakim Soria and Josh Hader combined for the final 3 2/3 innings and held the Reds scoreless on one hit. Hader bounced back from a bad outing Wednesday to retire Scooter Gennett, Jose Peraza and Joey Votto in order in the 11th for his 11th save.

"We got there in a little different way today. Wade pitched such a beautiful game," Counsell said. "It was the polar opposite from yesterday."

But the result was the same: A victory.

"It's huge," Miley said. "You look at it like we were kind of defeated a little bit [in the middle of Wednesday's game] and we fought back last night. Today, we kept battling and pulled it out. Big, big, big, big series for us."

MOMENT THAT MATTERED

Close call at home: For the third straight day, the Brewers found themselves at odds with Bill Welke's umpiring crew. Phillip Ervin was at first base with two outs in the seventh when Dilson Herrera doubled to the left-field corner. Ryan Braun methodically tracked down the baseball and relayed to shortstop Hernan Perez , whose throw home was on target and beat the runner to the plate.

But Ervin beat the tag, according to the call on the field by plate umpire Nick Mahrley. The Brewers challenged, but replay officials did not find sufficient evidence to overturn that critical on-the-spot call, and the ruling stood to tie the game at 1.

The Brewer fell to 5-22 in challenges this season, and that includes a win earlier in Thursday's game.

"I was pretty shocked he called him safe to begin with," Miley said. "But it's so fast. It's so hard to judge those guys. They have to make split-second decisions, and he went with what he thought. It was unfortunate for us."

Said Counsell: "I guess once they called him safe, I wasn't very optimistic. I wouldn't have called him safe as the play happened live, though. It didn't look like a 'safe' call as the play happened live. That's what I was surprised about. But once you get a safe call, you're not surprised by the outcome."

HE SAID IT

"I mean, I see tough competitors. Things haven't always gone smoothly or gone exactly right, but they've kind of toughed their way through some stuff. Ended up hanging around, hanging in there, battling back, and then something good is happening."

-- Counsell, whose club has won in extra innings three times in the past six games

MEDICAL MATTERS

Jennings, who has struggled of late, got a big out in the bottom of the eighth inning only to suffer a sprained left ankle on the play. Taking over from Miley with speedster Billy Hamilton at second base and one out, Jennings induced a Schebler comebacker and caught Hamilton between second and third. The Brewers executed the rundown for the second out of what became a scoreless inning, but Jennings was hurt along the way and had to be helped off the field by a pair of Brewers athletic trainers.

An X-ray was negative, and Jennings described the injury as minor.

"I'll be good to go," he said. "I've rolled it before."

The Reds also lost a reliever to an in-game injury, as Austin Brice exited in the top of the 11th with an irregular heartbeat. Brice, just called up Thursday, said he lost his breath and felt light-headed after Cain hit his first-pitch fastball for the decisive home run. After one more pitch to Yelich, Brice left the game.

"I was able to get behind the mound, kind of catch my breath and kind of settle down a little bit," Brice said. "But I went out there and threw another pitch after that and they decided to pull me. They didn't want to mess around with it."

UP NEXT

In Jhoulys Chacin , the Brewers have their steadiest starter on the mound for the opener of a three-game series in Washington on Friday. The Brewers are 19-9 with Chacin on the mound, and he's 4-2 with a 3.06 ERA in nine career starts against the Nationals. Washington righty Tanner Roark 's first pitch is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. CT.

Adam McCalvy has covered the Brewers for MLB.com since 2001. Follow him on Twitter @AdamMcCalvy and like him on Facebook.