MILWAUKEE — At least the Chicago Cubs didn’t need to worry about another bullpen catastrophe. Instead, the Milwaukee Brewers jumped out to a big lead, then held on for an 8-6 win to sweep their division rivals Wednesday night.It might not be official, but Milwaukee is the NL Central division champ yet again. The gap in talent might not be as dramatic as it once was, but the Brewers’ division lead just doesn’t seem to shrink.“Definitely the last two years we’ve been chasing them,” Ian Happ said. “They have the best record in baseball now; they had the best record in baseball last year. They’ve done their job. So you gotta give them credit for that all the way around as an organization.”The Cubs continue to fall behind their small-market rivals to the north. And their hopes to try to take them down in the postseason need to be put on hold as they cling to their playoff spot with 15 games to go.How a 90-mile stretch could decide the World SeriesKen RosenthalIt wasn’t too long ago the Cubs were feeling very good about themselves. On Aug 14, they beat the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0, moved to 21 games over .500 and closed the gap between them and the Brewers to three games.Their lead in the wild-card standings had grown to six games over the San Diego Padres and seven over both the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks. The playoffs seemed assured, and there was a legitimate shot at taking the division crown.Less than a month later, it’s all fallen apart. Yes, the Cubs still hold a playoff spot, but the division race is over as the Brewers hold a 10-game lead with two weeks remaining. The Phillies have a 1 1/2-game lead over the Cubs for the top wild-card spot, the Padres have pulled to within 2 1/2 games, and the Diamondbacks three.“Our job is to win games,” manager Craig Counsell said. “That’s what we can control, that’s what we can do. It doesn’t affect any decisions that happen during the game here; what’s going on around the league doesn’t help us. Do we know the standings? I know the standings, yeah.”The Cubs can’t scoreboard watch. Their focus has to be on what they can do.“This time of year, you can’t really pay attention to any of the noise that’s outside of this locker room,” starter Kevin Gausman said. “Because everybody’s an expert right now and going to put their two cents in. We just gotta put our head down and keep playing really good baseball. Just continue to be confident and execute.”The problem is, the Cubs aren’t playing really good baseball. Over their last 19 games, they’ve gone 7-12, blowing leads — early and late — nine times. Gausman, brought in at the trade deadline to stabilize a shaky rotation, has been inconsistent. The veteran has made seven starts for the Cubs, three of which have been brilliant. But after allowing seven runs (six earned) in four innings Wednesday, he has failed to complete five innings and given up five or more earned runs in three others.“Obviously, not the series we wanted to have here,” Happ said. “We’ve put ourselves in a position where we kind of control our destiny. Our goal is to play playoff baseball no matter how that shakes out. Give ourselves an opportunity. We have a little over two weeks to make that push and finish strong.”For the optimists, the good news is the Cubs hold the tiebreaker over all three of the other teams competing for the wild card. But that it’s come to this is an indictment of the last few weeks of play. The bullpen is the glaring issue, but playing the Brewers seems to put the importance of every aspect of the Cubs’ performance under a microscope. If they’re not at their best, Milwaukee will take advantage.The Cubs haven’t played clean baseball this week. That has to change, otherwise they could be looking at a September collapse for the ages.But this is a team that has shaken off a 10-game losing streak and found its best form. It’s overcome an avalanche of injuries to its pitching staff and still holds a playoff spot. It has shown it can right the ship even when everything looks so dire. That has to happen once again in short order.“We gotta play good baseball,” Counsell said. “We’re not playing good enough. There’s enough things we’re not doing in all areas. We’ve gotta do a little bit more collectively to win games.”