MILWAUKEE -- While some teams wait to set their Trade Deadline strategy, with one week to go, the Brewers’ is clear: 

They’re buyers. 

And a 4-3 loss to the Reds on Tuesday at American Family Field -- at least the first 8 2/3 innings of it -- was another reminder they could use a jolt of offense. 

“We’re very active right now, and we want to do what we can to help the team responsibly,” said GM Matt Arnold before Sal Frelick’s two-out walk in the ninth finally parked something at the end of an otherwise frustrating night. “We’re on the phones a lot trying to do what we can. It’s a little bit of a slow-moving market, but we’re certainly in play right now.”

The Brewers are open to adding a bat to the infield mix or the outfield at the Deadline -- Aug. 1 at 5 p.m. CT, for those keeping track at home -- and have checked in with every team from the obvious sellers to those on the fence. It’s not hard to see why. Only the Marlins have scored fewer runs since the All-Star break than the Brewers (36 runs in 11 games), who have topped four runs only once since the break. 

But Arnold has been consistent about using the caveat “responsibly” whenever he talks about trading prospects for Major League talent, meaning he’s not going to part with top prospects like Jackson Chourio (the club's No. 1 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline) and Jacob Misiorowski (No. 4) for a short-term fix. Last year, the Brewers tried to add a hitter but considered the costs too high. 

How would Arnold feel if the Brewers once again passed the Deadline without adding a bat?

“Look, I think we want to try to help this team, but we know we’re built around pitching and defense, anytime you want to add a quote-unquote bat, sometimes those guys aren’t very good defenders,” Arnold said. “The reality is sometimes those guys might not make your team better. 

“We just want to be careful about not just getting a bat for the sake of it. It needs to be an upgrade as a player as a whole.” 

Brewers pitching continues to do its part. Corbin Burnes held the Reds to two runs on three hits in six innings for his fifth quality start in as many outings in July. He extended his scoreless streak to 18 innings before a hit batsman, a walk and two well-placed hits produced two Reds runs in the fourth inning.

Brewers hitters, meanwhile, did the same thing they did Monday before pulling out a win: They put many runners on base but struggled to score. That included the fourth inning, when Caratini doubled with Andruw Monasterio at first base and two outs, and Monasterio was thrown out at home. 

“Two outs, we’re going to be aggressive,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “I thought the catcher made a great play for them on the short hop and did a nice job securing the baseball.”

It’s a fine line between being aggressive and forcing things for an offense that continues to rank near the bottom in MLB. The Brewers’ team wRC+ is 88, meaning they are 12 percent below league average. With Frelick up to play right field regularly -- he’s reached safely in nine of his first 14 career plate appearances, including two walks off the bench Tuesday -- the Brewers still have flexibility to add a hitter at a variety of positions. They rank 17th in wRC+ at third base, 18th at shortstop, 25th at second base, 29th at first and 30th at designated hitter, though shortstop Willy Adames and second baseman Brice Turang have played at a high level defensively, a significant part of the Brewers’ equation. 

“We just didn’t do enough offensively,” Counsell said of Tuesday’s loss. “We put a runner on base in a lot of innings. We had a lot of longer at-bats, especially in the bullpen. We made a lot of their relievers work. We just didn’t cash anything in.” 

Finally, down 4-0 in the ninth, Frelick’s two-out walk got something started. Blake Perkins kept the inning alive with a single on a soft ground ball before Yelich lined his 15th home run of the season over the wall in left field to make it a one-run game. With All-Star closer Alexis Díaz in the game, William Contreras legged out an infield hit that required replay to keep the rally alive, and Adames was hit on the helmet by a pitch but stayed in the game, representing the winning run.

That’s where the rally ended. Monasterio, a Minor League invitee to Spring Training who has been a nice surprise, and served as the Brewers’ cleanup hitter Tuesday, flied out. 

“I think it’s awesome to see the guys come together and fight for that last inning after a tough eight innings before that, me included,” Perkins said. “It was fun to see that kind of jolt. We know we’ve got that, always.”