CINCINNATI -- One moment, Corbin Burnes looked strong. When he caught Reds leadoff hitter TJ Friedl looking at a cutter for the second out of the fifth inning on Friday, Burnes ensured the first double-digit strikeout performance of what has been a hard-fought season.

A moment later, he was crouched behind the mound, momentarily overcome on a steamy summer night at Great American Ball Park.

But after getting some medical attention and a bottle of water, Burnes stayed in the game to finish the fifth, then returned for the sixth to put the finishing touches on one of his best performances of 2023.

Burnes scattered two hits and two walks without allowing a run and set a season high with 13 strikeouts -- whiffing Reds rookie phenom Elly De La Cruz all three times up -- in a 1-0 Brewers win that knotted Milwaukee and Cincinnati atop the National League Central.

Victor Caratini’s RBI single in the seventh inning provided the game’s only run as Burnes, Elvis Peguero, Joel Payamps and Devin Williams combined for a two-hit shutout with a season-high 18 strikeouts, giving the Brewers their second straight 1-0 win over the Reds, with the All-Star break in between.

Combined with the 14 strikeouts in the July 9 shutout, Milwaukee’s 32 K’s is the most without allowing a run by any Major League team over a two-game span in the Modern Era (since 1900), according to OptaSTATS. It’s also the first time in franchise history that the Brewers have won consecutive games by the 1-0 score.

“It’s cool, but we need to put more runs on the board to take a little bit of pressure off the pitchers,” Brewers shortstop Willy Adames said.

As the teams returned from the break, the Cincinnati heat was a factor for everybody. It was a humid 91 degrees -- “Like a sauna,” Adames said -- when Reds right-hander Graham Ashcraft took the mound. 

The Brewers knocked Ashcraft around in this ballpark on June 3, but Friday was different. Aside from the third inning, when Joey Wiemer was waved home from second base on William Contreras’ base hit, only to be cut down by a strong throw from Reds left fielder Spencer Steer, the Brewers couldn’t get anything going in the game’s first six innings.

Burnes matched zeroes. Pitching off his curveball and slider, he struck out multiple batters in every inning except a 1-2-3 fourth that ended with a strikeout of Steer, Burnes’ eighth of the night. In the fifth, with a runner aboard and two outs after two more strikeouts, Burnes threw a first-pitch strike to Matt McLain and then stepped behind the mound, dropping into a crouch as concerned teammates converged. 

“I feel like in the third inning, too, he called Caratini out of nowhere. It was a little weird,” said Adames, the first teammate to reach Burnes’ side in the fifth. “I was on top of him to make sure he had somebody right next to him just in case an emergency happened.” 

Burnes was just as surprised. 

“I’m not really sure what happened,” he said. “I threw a pitch to McLain and looked in to Vic, and everything went dizzy. And my eyes went cross-eyed.”

Within two minutes, Burnes’ vision improved, and he stayed in the game. After retiring McLain on a pop-out, he retreated to the cool of the clubhouse for more liquids and a bite of food. But he didn’t stay long; Brewers hitters coaxed 11 pitches from Ashcraft in the top of the sixth, forcing Burnes back to the mound quickly at the 87-pitch mark.

“I’ve never had that, so I didn’t know what was going on or what to expect,” Burnes said. “If it was going to be short-term, long-term. Scary in the moment, but I’m glad that it went away quick.”

He appeared sharp as ever, striking out Jake Fraley, De La Cruz and Jonathan India on 15 pitches to finish the outing. Against De La Cruz, it was more of the same. Each of the three times Burnes faced him on Friday, he got an awkward swinging Strike 3 on a curveball in the dirt.

“It’s weird, because this is a lineup that for the most part doesn’t swing a ton,” Burnes said. “Their swing rates are on the low end in the league. Last week they came out swinging the bat. We didn’t know what to expect tonight.

“Early, they came out swinging, and they kind of played in our favor a little bit. We spun the ball a little bit more. The curveball was really good tonight.”

It marked the fifth time in Burnes’ career that he struck out 13 or more batters in a game. His career high is 15 strikeouts on Aug. 11, 2021 at Wrigley Field, on the night Burnes matched the Major League record by striking out 10 consecutive batters in one stretch.  

In the end, the Brewers scored just enough.

“We left runs out there tonight, and we're asking [the pitchers] to be perfect,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “They were tonight. They did great.”