CHICAGO — Well, the good news for the Cubs is the season is a marathon, not a sprint, according to sources.The bad news? The Cubs are slowing down at Mile 8. They’re besieged by blisters and have that glassy look in their eyes like they’re dreaming about calling an Uber or an ambulance. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Brewers just breezed by, happily waving to the fans on the side of the road.It wasn’t so long ago that everyone, not just over-excitable Cubs fans, was slack-jawed at the team’s two 10-game winning streaks in 24 games. Despite all the pitching injuries, the team was sprinting and slugging its way to the top of the division.Since then, they’ve dropped eight of 10. On Tuesday, they earned their fourth straight loss, a dispiriting 5-2 defeat at the hands and bats of the Brewers at Wrigley Field.As the game ended, the Brewers fans who helped fill the park on a weekday evening cheered, and the Cubs fans who didn’t file out in the ninth booed.After toiling in last place in the division two weeks ago, Milwaukee (28-18) is now back in first in the NL Central. And the Cubs (29-20) are once again looking up at their northern neighbors (and at the St. Louis Cardinals by percentage points).I’m willing to guess no team has ever had two 10-game winning streaks and been in third place on May 20. But this Cubs team certainly contains multitudes, doesn’t it?It’s too early for fans to grow despondent, but it’s not too early for them to get annoyed.On Monday, ESPN 1000 host David Kaplan went on a long, entertaining rant, ripping his fellow fans for not possessing the “intestinal fortitude” to withstand some bumps in the road. Some fans, said the always-excitable “Kapman,” couldn’t handle a 162-game season.The next night, he suggested on X that Cubs manager Craig Counsell see an ophthalmologist. His co-worker Marc Silverman got on his “swing of sadness” and called for a closed-door clubhouse meeting.Everyone has their breaking point, I suppose. And not just performative radio hosts.Losing two of three to the White Sox on the South Side was one thing. The main story of the past weekend wasn’t even the Cubs losing, it was the vibrant crowds at The Rate, the resurgent Sox franchise, and, yes, Cubs center fielder Pete Crow-Armstrong getting into a war of naughty words with a fan. (He lost, having to apologize and pay a small fine.)But losing the first two games of the first series of the year against Milwaukee is worth getting angsty about, as the Brewers have replaced the St. Louis Cardinals as Chicago’s small-market bogeymen.The last time the Cubs faced Milwaukee was in Game 5 of the 2025 NLDS. The Brewers won that one at home to reach the NLCS. Last season, the Cubs were in first place in the division until the end of July. Milwaukee then started August by winning 14 in a row, turning a one-game lead into nine. Chicago won seven of 13 regular-season meetings against their foes, but it didn’t amount to anything but second place.Despite payroll limitations and losing Counsell to a market-setting deal in Chicago, the Brewers have won three consecutive division titles and five overall since the Cubs’ last one in 2017.With the additions of Alex Bregman and Edward Cabrera this offseason, it looked like the Cubs had spent enough to win the division again. But then injuries struck the staff and the hitters, including Bregman, have gone cold, and the Brewers started doing that thing where they win a bunch of games behind a conga line of walks and singles.That’s how they took an early 3-0 lead against Cubs starter Ben Brown on Tuesday. Two singles and a walk in the first followed by three singles, a fielder’s choice and a walk in the third. It could’ve been worse, but Brown wiggled out of some jams in the fourth and fifth. Milwaukee made it 5-0 with Brice Turang’s two-run homer in the eighth.Meanwhile, the Cubs’ first two batters reached against Brewers right-handed wunderkind Jacob Misiorowski, and then the lineup basically did nothing until the bottom of the eighth.Before the game, the Brewers’ 6-foot-7 string-bean ace was sitting in his locker, his knees against his chest, while looking at his phone. It was quite a sight. Then he unfolded his Flat Stanley-like body and disposed of the Cubs in dominating fashion. “The Miz” needed 26 pitches to finish the first inning and just 48 over his next five. He struck out eight and gave up three singles and one walk in six innings.The Cubs briefly made it interesting in the eighth, scoring two runs to wake up the home fans, but they left the bases loaded. In the bottom of the ninth, fans were filing out of a quiet ballpark while the team was still hitting.A team that looked unbeatable two weeks ago is now almost unwatchable. That will almost certainly change, perhaps as soon as Wednesday or over the weekend when the Houston Astros come to town. But then the Cubs hit the road for four games in Pittsburgh and three in St. Louis.The front office needs to bolster the pitching staff in the trade market this summer, but they’ll have to conjure a way to stay afloat for now. Given the makeup of the roster, they’re not trading for hitters. This is the group that will carry the team to the end, whether they finish in first or not. It’s not on Counsell to lineup-construct their way out of this slide; it’s on the players.The good news is there’s still a long way to go, and while there are plenty of hills to climb, that’s just part of the experience. The bad news is Milwaukee is setting the pace once again. We know how that race ends.