CINCINNATI -- The cascade of boos directed towards Graham Ashcraft in the third inning vs. the Brewers on Saturday was a new thing for him through one-plus big league seasons. But it underscored what was already quite obvious.

The Reds' starting pitcher remains a long way from fixing whatever has been broken for several outings. Ashcraft gave up a career-high 10 earned runs over four innings -- including five runs in the top of the third -- during Cincinnati's 10-8 loss to Milwaukee at Great American Ball Park.

"Yeah, it sucks. If we could be perfect every time out there, we would be," said Ashcraft, who allowed nine hits and four walks with two strikeouts. "And there would be a lot more people playing this game. But there’s only a limited number of guys that have made it up to this level. It’s par for the course. You just have to learn and adjust."

Before his season took a sharp downward turn, Ashcraft owned a 2.00 ERA with one home run allowed through his first six starts. Over his last six starts, he has a 12.99 ERA -- including four outings in which he's given up seven or more runs -- and eight homers allowed.

Manager David Bell had no plans for Ashcraft, who has a 6.64 overall ERA, to come out of the rotation.

"We need him. We believe in him. He’s one of our best pitchers," Bell said. "We’ll find a way to get through this and get back on track."

It was a 1-1 game before a three-run top of the second inning when four straight Brewers reached safely, including RBI singles by Blake Perkins and Christian Yelich.

The Brewers jumped on Ashcraft again in the third inning. It started with a single by William Contreras and a four-pitch walk to Brian Anderson. Bell rarely makes mound visits when he's not removing a pitcher, but he tried to build Ashcraft's confidence with one in this situation.

"What I saw was just overtrying," Bell said. "That’s all you have to go on sometimes when you’re really struggling. I felt he could back off a bit and almost give in and let his ability take over to see if he could get that feeling back and be really locked in pitching well and adding back into that. That’s what I saw. He has a lot of people here who can help him and a lot of support."

Ashcraft wasn't able to stop the momentum. Later with the bases loaded and one out, Joey Wiemer walked to force home a run. Next was Perkins, who hit an 0-1 slider located over the middle of the plate for a grand slam to right field and a 9-1 Brewers lead.

After Ashcraft returned for a fourth inning, Contreras added a solo homer to center field on a first-pitch slider to make it a 10-3 game. The slider is a pitch Ashcraft has been trying to develop since the offseason.

“I just didn’t feel really comfortable with it today, but you still have to throw it because if you can establish it for a strike, [it helps] whether it’s swing and miss or whatever."

Ashcraft's best pitch has traditionally been his cutter -- which averaged a good 96.3 mph velocity on Saturday -- but he wasn't effective at throwing it for strikes. He's also lacking a sinker that he usually throws inside to righties and outside to lefties because the action has been too similar to his cutter. He threw it just eight times to the Brewers, with the lone offering it received coming on Andrew Monasterios' 104.7 mph single in the second inning.

“Today just wasn’t my day. Just wasn’t able to find the zone. That’s really about it," Ashcraft said.

Ashcraft made some progress in his previous start, an 8-5 victory for him over the Cubs last Sunday. He allowed three runs over five innings, with a three-run homer the only blemish.

"Stuff just isn’t doing what I want it to do right now. That’s really about it," Ashcraft said. "It’s stuff you have to battle through and just keep getting after it.”

Credit to the Reds' bullpen duo of rookies Eduardo Salazar and Kevin Herget, which kept Cincinnati in the game with five scoreless innings to enable a near comeback victory. The lineup scored two runs in the ninth inning to make it a two-run game before Kevin Newman and Matt McLain both struck out with the bases loaded to end the game.