On Aug. 6, the Cubs were tied with the Cardinals for the National League Central lead. That doesn’t seem so long ago but . . .

Today they are seven games back, thanks to their 7-2 loss in Los Angeles Thursday night. This was their third loss in four games on their current West Coast swing.

Old friend Jeff Weaver shut down the Cubs this time, making them feel as if their season is slipping away.

“Obviously it is right now,” third baseman Aramis Ramirez told the Chicago Tribune. “We can’t look at it that way. We’ve got to go out there and win games the rest of the year and see what happens.”

Manager Lou Piniella can’t bear to peek at the standings, since the Cardinals seldom lose these days.

“I’m not even looking where we’re at,” Piniella said. “I’m just trying to see about winning some baseball games, that’s it.”

MILTON BRADLEY PLAYS GAMES WITH FANS

Don’t get on Cubs outfielder Milton Bradley unless you want to fire him up. In games at Milwaukee and San Diego, he responded to jeering fans by hitting home runs and then giving it back to his tormentors.

“You need life,” Bradley said, according to the Tribune. “I can’t play all dull and stuff. When you come on the road, you expect to be razzed.”

In the San Diego incident, a fan taunted Bradley with hand gestures. Milton responded with hand gestures of his own, prompting Piniella to characterize the exchange as a “Muppet conversation.”

And how does Piniella feel about all this interaction?

“Yeah, you would prefer that they would [ignore them],” Piniella said. “You can have a little fun with it once in a while, but you would prefer they concentrate on the game at hand.”

ANOTHER FORM OF BASEBALL CHEATING

This is still another shocking revelation in baseball.

CHAD OCHOCINCO SHOWS OFF AGAIN

This time the noisy Bengals receiver grabbed some spotlight by filling in for injured Bengals kicker Shayne Graham and nailing a preseason extra point Thursday night.

“’Esteban’ Ochocinco is back, the most interesting footballer in the world,” Ochocinco said, according to The Associated Press. “Everyone has to remember, I’ve always said that soccer is my No. 1 sport. I think Ronaldinho would be proud of me right now.”

Well, maybe.

“Soccer’s my first love, Kicking’s easy . . .  like riding a bike,” he said. “I can kick them from 50, 60 yards, left or right hash mark . . . I kicked all through high school.”

We will literally never hear the end of this.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while waiting for Brendan Ryan to come down from his grand slam high:

• Are folks in Kentucky feeling a bit queasy about having John Calipari out there recruiting Wildcats by hook or crook?
• How long before Kentucky, like Memphis, will have to vacate a big stack of victories because of NCAA violations?
• Since Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis is buddies with Albert Pujols, will that good karma turn around the Not-So-Fighting Irish?
• Did Shaq steal his reality TV show concept from former teammate Steve Nash?

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “John Calipari has coached two different schools to Final Fours in his career — Massachusetts and Memphis. He also has managed to get two different schools stripped of Final Fours because of some combination of cheating/academic fraud/using an illegal player — Massachusetts and Memphis. I think they call this a trend.”

Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle: ‘The Dallas Cowboys will sell 35,000 SRO “Party Passes’ for each home game. ‘Hey, let’s go fight the traffic, pay to park, stand up four hours in a mob of 35,000 people, maybe catch a glimpse of the game and chug $10 beers! Par-tay!’”

Lisa Olson, FanHouse: “Beyond their occupation and celebrity lifestyles and physical similarities, Plaxico Burress and Donte’ Stallworth really don’t belong in the same sentence. They committed different crimes in different states, and if both men are lucky enough to ever again play in the NFL, it will be interesting to see how the league skirts the pesky issue of convicted felons associating with other felons. Until then, enough with the clueless comparisons between Stallworth’s light sentence in Florida for committing vehicular manslaughter while drunk and Burress’ heavy plea agreement for criminal possession of a weapon in New York. Just because Florida officials allow wads of cash to buy leniency, that’s no reason other states can’t legislate their own version of justice.”

Greg Cote, Miami Herald: “Mexico beat the U.S. 2-1 in World Cup qualifying, leaving us 0-23-1 on Mexican soil. Which means we stop Mexicans in soccer about as successfully as we stop them from illegally crossing our border.”

MEGAPHONE

“Why should our sights only be set on the wild card? Play, and see what happens. Let’s go for the division.”

Rockies manager Jim Tracy.