CINCINNATI -- Reds starter Sonny Gray appeared to have 22,685 fans all in his corner Wednesday when manager David Bell paid him a mound visit in the eighth inning after a two-out walk. The din of crowd noise at Great American Ball Park increased to show support for Gray, and it roared when Bell’s talk was brief before he returned to the dugout.

“I just said ‘can I please finish this?’ It was a good moment,” Gray said. “I don’t know how much fans realize, but it can get you that little burst that you need to get through a seventh and eighth or a ninth inning.”

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The crowd stood with loud appreciation when Gray completed the eighth by getting Lorenzo Cain to fly out to right field. It capped the best start so far during his first season in Cincinnati as he tied a career high with 12 strikeouts in a 3-0 victory over the Brewers.

“I had been waiting for that type of moment for him as well,” Reds catcher Curt Casali said. “Super excited that he signed here long term. He’s one of my best friends and I’ve known him for a long time. We’ve got good fans here. For them to really get into it and give Sonny a good ovation, which he most definitely deserved, was awesome for me to see. Just thankful I was back there to be a small part of it.”

Gray, who threw 111 pitches, leaned heavily on his curveball. According to Statcast, he threw it 49 times and got 10 swings and misses, 12 called strikes, six fouls and six balls in play. The Brewers struck out six times on Gray’s curveball.

“It’s been my best pitch my whole life, not just in the big leagues. It was good tonight and I used it for sure,” said Gray, who signed a three-year, $30.5 million contract with Cincinnati upon his January trade from the Yankees.

Gray and Casali played together for three years at Vanderbilt University. Casali, who has seen a lot of good performances from the right-hander, called Wednesday’s outing “magical.”

“I mean that’s as quality as it could’ve been,” Casali said. “He was hitting pretty much every target I gave him. He made great pitches when he needed to.”

The win improved Gray’s record to 5-5 with a 3.69 ERA in 17 starts. The Reds’ rotation is third-best in the National League with a 3.64 ERA, just behind Washington’s 3.62.

In an up-for-grabs NL Central division race, only 4 1/2 games separate the first-place Brewers and last-place Reds.

Yasiel Puig opened the Cincinnati second inning by slugging a 1-1 Jhoulys Chacin pitch into the left-field seats for his 19th homer of the season. Puig now has eight home runs and 15 RBIs over his last 17 games.

A Puig leadoff single that zinged into center field in the bottom of the seventh inning also positioned the Reds for their second run. Derek Dietrich followed with a single to right field and Jose Iglesias drove in Puig with an RBI single through the middle to make it a two-run game. Puig added a sacrifice fly to center field that scored Joey Votto in the bottom of the eighth inning.

But with four hits allowed and the lone walk, Gray carried the game for the Reds. He outpitched Chacin, who kept the pressure on as he had retired 13 in a row going into the seventh.

“I think I shook one time tonight and gave up a hit,” Gray said. “Curt did an unbelievable job of balancing fastballs and curveballs and different variations of fastballs. He did a really, really good job and we made some great plays.”

One of those plays included shortstop Jose Iglesias fielding Ryan Braun’s grounder and turning an inning-ending double play in the sixth. For the second out in the eighth, Puig made a nice catch at the right-field wall on a drive from Manny Pina.

It was only the second time in 2019 that a Reds starter pitched into the eighth inning. Gray joined Lucas Sims, who made a spot start of 7 1/3 innings vs. the Pirates on May 29, the day after a doubleheader when a sixth starter was needed. Bell, who has often leaned on his bullpen this season, came to the mound following Gray’s two-out walk of pinch-hitter Yasmani Grandal.

"I was a little in between,” Bell said. “I wanted to give him the opportunity, but after the walk, I wanted to make sure he wasn't [too] fatigued. ... But I wanted to make sure he had another hitter in him. There was no doubt when I saw the look on his face.”

Casali wasn’t exactly sure what Bell would do in that moment but figured Gray would likely be taken out.

“I gave Sonny a little fist bump just to say great job,” Casali said. “Great job by David to check his oil and make sure he was still in a great frame of mind. Sonny took the challenge and got a big [out].”