CINCINNATI -- Bob Uecker knew the sort of doubleheader day that awaited the Brewers on Friday at Great American Ball Park, where the temperature peaked at 98 degrees before Devin Williams secured the final out in the 10th inning of a Brewers win in Game 1, and was still a steamy 90 degrees around when DL Hall threw his first pitch in a 14-0 win in Game 2.

Uecker played on days like this when the Reds called Crosley Field home, and remembers slipping cabbage leaves under his cap and into his shoes to stay cool. It actually worked, he says -- for a couple of innings.

“I’m telling you, there would be a big tub of cabbage on ice in the dugout,” Uecker said.

Uecker being who he is, he couldn’t help but add, “And that was the players’ meal between games.”

Postgame spreads are a lot better these days, and the Brewers earned every bite on a long day and night at the ballpark that ended with them enjoying a double-digit lead on every other team in the National League Central with the best run differential (+133) in the Majors. At 79-56, the Brewers pulled into a tie with the Phillies for the second-best record in the NL, which matters because the top two division winners in each league earn first-round byes in the postseason.

Most prognosticators did not see this coming. The PECOTA system projected a 79-83 season after the Brewers traded Corbin Burnes to Baltimore for Hall, third baseman Joey Ortiz and future considerations, and that was long before Christian Yelich’s bid for another batting title ended with back surgery.

“We ask among ourselves sometimes, ‘How do we do it?’” said shortstop Willy Adames, one of two Milwaukee hitters -- with William Contreras -- to homer in both games. “We’re going out there and competing, trying to win the moment. Not worrying about tomorrow but worrying about tonight.

“It’s been working. The mindset was set up in Spring Training: ‘Win today.’”

It’s how manager Pat Murphy and the Brewers approached both games on Friday. After deploying a lot of their top relievers to secure the opening game, Hall, called up from Triple-A to serve as Milwaukee’s 27th man for the doubleheader, delivered seven scoreless innings in the best of his seven starts in the big leagues so far (he has 35 total appearances) -- and just the sort of efficient, extended outing the team needed in the nightcap.

“It’s definitely a good feeling to pitch deep into the game and finally feel like myself again,” said Hall.

That’s been a struggle this year. Hall fought through a poor April with a sore knee and went on the injured list, was hit on the arm by a comebacker in what was supposed to be his final rehab start in July, then got only one previous Major League start once he was healthy again before being optioned.

He was so effective Friday, Murphy said, that Hall may force his way deeper into the team’s plans for September and possibly beyond.

“There were a lot of great performances today, but DL sticks out,” Murphy said. “We came in with our bullpen reeling a little bit.”

In combining with Joe Ross on a five-hitter, Hall outpitched Cincinnati right-hander Rhett Lowder, the Reds’ No. 2 prospect and baseball’s No. 34 overall prospect per MLB Pipeline, who battled Brewers hitters for four innings in his Major League debut.

Milwaukee scored in multiple ways, from Garrett Mitchell’s hustle from second to home on a ground ball single to a quartet of home runs against Reds relievers. It was Adames who broke the game open with a three-run homer -- his 11th three-run blast this season and 26th long ball of the year -- in Milwaukee’s 10-run ninth, as the Brewers scored 10-plus runs in an inning for the eighth time in franchise history.

Between the pitching and the hitting, Murphy’s job became much easier. The Brewers went into the day intent on not using any reliever in both games, but rather than save one of his higher-leverage arms for the nightcap, Murphy emptied the bullpen tank to win Game 1. So it was Joe Ross behind Hall for Game 2.

“Why give up something? You don’t know what the second game brings,” Murphy said between games.

Hall made it work by scattering four hits and one walk on 83 pitches over seven innings before Ross took over in the eighth. The Brewers didn’t need their higher-leverage arms as they swept the doubleheader and, after pushing 22 games over .500 for the first time this season in Game 1, finished the day 23 games over.

“I want to help the Brewers win in any way I can, and part of that today was covering some innings,” Hall said. “It was big for me to do that for my teammates.”