CHICAGO -- The Cubs hired Craig Counsell away from the rival Brewers last winter with the goal of returning to the top of the National League Central under Counsell's leadership and experience. Milwaukee wound up popping champagne in celebration of another division crown on Wednesday night.

Counsell waited until Thursday -- when the division title was officially wrapped up -- to discuss the North Siders’ inability to chase down the Brewers this season. Ahead of Chicago’s 7-6 win over the Nationals at Wrigley Field, the Cubs manager made it clear that there's a lot of work ahead if winning the division is to become a reality in 2025.

“The message sent, really, is that, look, there’s a big gap,” Counsell said. “It’s a talented team. But, there’s a big gap and we’ve got room to make up -- there’s no question about it. Frankly, that makes it daunting.”

Following an 83-win campaign in 2023 that left the Cubs just outside the playoff field, Chicago headed into ‘24 hoping to build on that showing. In the better part of a decade spent in Milwaukee, Counsell established a reputation for squeezing extra wins out of his rosters, fueling optimism that the same might happen in Chicago.

With much of the same roster as ‘23 -- beyond the signing of lefty Shota Imanaga and the trade acquisition of rookie first baseman Michael Busch -- the Cubs believed they had the group to run down the NL Central crown. In Spring Training, Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts even declared: “I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t be favored for our division this year.”

The Cubs have lingered on the outer edges of the NL Wild Card race into September, but have been at least seven games behind the Brewers for first place since June 10.

“This is a team and an organization that should not be set up for competing for Wild Cards,” Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner said. “Definitely, you want to be the class of your division, and we weren't that this year. The division being clinched on Sept. 18 is significant.

“So, closing that gap? Head-to-head competition is a good place to start, right? They beat us this year, and I don't think we played our best baseball against them. That's always going to be a huge factor.”

In 13 games against the Brewers this season, the Cubs went 5-8 with a -9 run differential. Milwaukee also did much better against the division overall, posting a 30-19 record against the Central to date, compared to a 21-28 mark for Chicago. The Cubs also struggled in one-run games (21-28), compared to the Brewers (27-24).

“We’ve got to get better, man,” Counsell said. “We should be trying to build 90-win teams here. That’s what you have to do. That’s the playoff standard.”

The stretch of baseball that sunk the Cubs’ chances stretched across late April and early July. From April 27-July 3 -- a period beginning with a 17-0 loss to the Red Sox and ending one game before a July 4 romp over the Phillies -- the team had a .650 OPS (29th in MLB) with a .587 OPS with runners in scoring position (30th) and 3.5 runs per game. Chicago went 22-39 in that period.

Outside of that two-plus-month stretch of perplexing offensive output, the Cubs posted strong numbers across the board. Chicago has been one of the top defensive teams in baseball (20 Outs Above Average and 36 Defensive Runs Saved, entering Thursday), while residing near the top of the NL in pitching (3.83 ERA). The lineup has been average in wRC+.

“We've had stretches this year that were playoff quality,” Hoerner said. “But I think most teams in baseball probably do that at one point or another, so it’s the value of consistency over 162. This year, obviously, was not what we set out to do. But, you'd rather be on the end of progress, where you have players that are younger, that will be around here for a long time, under team control, that are trending in the right direction.

“I think that's a big part of the gap that we're going to fill from this year to years in the future. But at the end of day, you have to win. Run differential and all those things, they matter. But at a certain point, you've got to win close games.

“I'm sure you can twist the stats a million different ways to find a narrative that you want. But we didn't win winning moments, close plays, runners in scoring positions. We had some uncharacteristic errors early in the year. Things like that matter a lot when you look back on things.”