CHICAGO -- A 7-0 win over the Cubs on Friday afternoon at Wrigley Field extended the Brewers’ winning streak to seven games. It lifted them into a virtual tie with Chicago for first place in the National League Central, with St. Louis right behind. And since it was the Brewers’ 40th game, it means they will be tied for first when they turn the corner on the first quarter of the regular season in the middle of the fifth inning on Saturday.

In other words, this thing is playing out just as most prognosticators prognosticated.

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“We expected the same thing,” said Ryan Braun, whose fourth-inning homer through a cold wind provided the game’s only run until the Brewers started scoring in pairs over each of the final three frames. “We expect it to be a tight race all the way through the end of the season. We recognize that in all likelihood, the most challenging part of our schedule was the first six or eight weeks, so we feel really good about where we’re at right now.”

Where they’re at is a season-high eight games over .500 at 24-16, with a stabilized pitching staff leading the way to the tune of a 1.50 ERA and a .190 opponents’ average during the season-high seven-game winning streak.

The Brewers have two more victories and two more losses than the 22-14 Cubs. The Cardinals were one-half game back, pending their own contest later in the day. The NL Central was the only division in MLB without multiple sub-.500 teams entering Friday’s slate.

“It's the best division in baseball,” the Cubs' David Bote said. “That's what we play for. We play the best and we want to be the best. We've got a lot of games left to play.”

"It’s challenging,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said as his team prepared to play at Wrigley Field for the first time since winning last year’s NL Central tiebreaker game. “You learn everything about it when you have to play a 163rd game. You know that everything is meaningful. It was made abundantly clear to us last year, as we’ve talked about -- you feel like you talk about it daily, really. The guys are all aware of it, for sure. We have talked about it with the guys.

“We’re in this division. There’s good teams in it. It’s competitive. There’s no easy games. That’s just what it is.”

Friday was one of those hard-fought games. Gio Gonzalez allowed two hits while pitching scoreless ball into the sixth inning to lower his ERA to 1.69 in three starts since the Brewers brought him back, and relievers Corbin Burnes and Junior Guerra each escaped jams when the game was still tight.

“[Gonzalez] is giving us a chance to win in every start,” Counsell said. “It feels like he’s gotten better, really, as he’s taken the ball every fifth day. He’s been a big stabilizer.”

After the Brewers got to him at Miller Park last month, Cubs starter Jose Quintana snapped back into form, limiting the Brewers to Braun's solo homer for the first six frames, before Milwaukee broke through for two more runs in the seventh. Braun’s home run gave him 18 homers and 69 RBIs in 84 career games at Wrigley Field, trailing only Albert Pujols’ 29 homers and 75 RBIs here among active players.

“In games like this, it’s so important to get ahead so you can set your bullpen the way that you want,” Braun said. “It’s so hard to score when it’s like this. It’s hard for both teams. It will be more of the same the next two days, so getting ahead is so important.”

What is it about Wrigley Field that brings out his best?

“Just the atmosphere is so much fun,” Braun said. “Wrigley is always such a special place to play. It’s loud, it’s always packed, it’s energetic.”

And the Brewers’ middle infielders shined. Second baseman Hernán Pérez made a pair of sparkling stops, including a sliding, twisting play on an Albert Almora Jr. ground ball in the third inning that denied the Cubs a 1-0 lead. In the seventh, with the Brewers’ lead up to 3-0, shortstop Orlando Arcia turned an unassisted double play, alertly chasing down the lead runner before he could reach third. That decision wound up denying the Cubs another run, and Brewers hitters responded by pulling away in the eighth and ninth.

All of a sudden, the season is 25 percent in the books. That sounded good to Lorenzo Cain, perhaps because he’d just taken a foul ball off his right shin that left him swollen and hurting -- but expecting to play Saturday.

“We’re a little closer to the Promised Land,” Cain said. “We’ve been playing some great ball lately. That’s the team we know we can be.”