CINCINNATI -- J.J. Hardy was not exactly sure how long his hitting drought had stretched before he snapped it on Tuesday. Teammate and student of the numbers Ryan Braun, who had just walked over delivered the grim news.

"Oh-for-28," Braun said with a smile.

"Now I'm 2-for-3," Hardy countered.

Hardy was hitless in his first two at-bats on Tuesday, but singled and scored in the fifth inning and hit another single in the seventh inning before making an out in the ninth as the Brewers routed the Reds, 8-1, and evened the three-game series at one win apiece.

Jeff Suppan starts Wednesday's series finale for Milwaukee seeking the team's second straight road series victory. Hardy will be looking to continue what qualifies as a hot streak, but he'll have to do it off the bench. Craig Counsell was penciled into the starting lineup Wednesday morning, batting in Hardy's usual No. 2 spot.

"I ended my Double-A season in '03 with an 0-for-25," Hardy said. "That was probably my worst ever, but this one topped it. You notice. I wish you didn't notice, because once you do, then you press through it and it makes it harder to hit. That's why those sometimes last so long."

Hardy's drought came after his best hot streak of the season. In the 11 games before his first hitless game, Hardy batted .391. He hit .339 in July with nine home runs and 21 RBIs, comparable numbers to Braun, who won National League Player of the Month honors.

"That's just baseball I guess," Hardy said. "Obviously, I'm not going to keep up .400 over the whole season. Everyone goes through [slumps]. It stinks, and the best thing to do is to relax and don't think about it, but that's a lot easier said than done."

Hardy was not the only slumping Brewers hitter who contributed in the win. Mike Cameron was 2-for-11 on the road trip before collecting two hits and scoring two runs. Jason Kendall was 2-for-15 on the trip and in a 4-for-41 slump (.098) before his two-hit, two-RBI game.

For the Brewers, it was a bounce-back win from a series-opening loss on Monday that included a scuffle in the dugout.

"That's a big game for us," Hardy said. "You can look at it two ways. If we had lost today, it could have looked like what happened [Monday] brought us down. But we won, so it's the opposite. Maybe it was a little spark for us. We definitely need to look at the positives."

Pitching matchup
MIL: RHP Jeff Suppan (6-7, 4.75 ERA)
Jeff Suppan pitched seven shutout innings Friday against the Braves, which was easily his most impressive outing since being reinstated from the disabled list on July 22. The 33-year-old right-hander missed only one start because of joint irritation in his pitching elbow, and said after Friday's start that the injury is becoming less of an issue with each outing. On Friday, Suppan walked the bases loaded in the fourth inning -- his only real trouble -- but induced a lazy flyout to escape the inning unscathed. He is 3-2 with a 5.33 ERA in 13 career starts against the Reds.

CIN: RHP Homer Bailey (0-5, 7.55 ERA)
Bailey faced a Nationals team on Friday which came in losers of nine in a row. Yet, he was pounded in a 5-2 loss where he allowed five earned runs and seven hits over just two innings with one walk and three strikeouts. Of his 49 pitches, 32 were strikes, but many of those strikes were left over the heart of the plate. Bailey hasn't won a game at either Triple-A or the Majors since April 30 -- a span of 17 starts.

Tidbits
With first-round pick Brett Lawrie under contract, the Brewers have signed each of their first 26 selections from the First-Year Player Draft and 28 of their first 29. The lone unsigned player in that group -- outfielder Marcus Knecht from St. Michael High School in Toronto -- is not expected to sign. He is committed to Oklahoma State University. ... Braun's 30th home run on Monday night made him the second player in baseball history to slug at least 30 home runs in each of his first two seasons. The other is St. Louis' Albert Pujols. ... Brewers bullpen coach Bill Castro, who will serve as the pitching coach for the Dominican Republic in next year's World Baseball Classic, spent time Tuesday lobbying Reds closer Francisco Cordero to pitch in the tournament. Young Reds hurlers Johnny Cueto and Edinson Volquez also have tentatively agreed to pitch. ... The Brewers are five games into a stretch in which they play 12 of 16 games on the road. So far, they are 3-2 in that span.

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Up next
• Thursday: Off-day
• Friday: Brewers (CC Sabathia, 11-8, 3.28) vs. Nationals (Collin Balester, 2-3, 4.55), 7:05 p.m. CT
• Saturday: Brewers (Ben Sheets, 10-5, 3.14) vs. Nationals (Tim Redding, 8-6, 4.44), 6:05 p.m. CT