CHICAGO -- So maybe the bad stretch every team goes through is happening right now for the Chicago Cubs. Or maybe the world champions are experiencing that hangover period after making history last season.

Or perhaps it’s simply what John Lackey thinks is happening.

“People are going to come in here gunning for us, for sure,” Lackey said after the Cubs’ 6-3 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Monday. “We’re the world champs and people are going to come in here and play well. We’ll have to match that intensity and play better.”

The Cubs haven’t exactly matched that intensity over the past four games, each one seemingly more sloppy than the last, and each ending in a loss. Lackey didn’t help matters with yet another frustrating start to his outing. He gave up three home runs in the first three innings on a 45-degree night with the wind blowing in. The Brewers deserve some credit, sure, but with the Cubs dropping to 6-7, no one is looking at the opposition -- just the flaws in the home team.

Kris Bryant dives for a wild throw from catcher Willson Contreras, which allowed Ryan Braun to score as part of a two-run eighth inning for the Brewers. Tannen Maury/EPA

“Losing is not our strong suit, I guess you would say,” Kyle Schwarber stated.

That sounds like a confusing thought, but it’s clear what Schwarber means: Being under .500 just isn’t the Cubs’ thing, not anymore. It’s the first time since the end of the 2014 season they’ve been under .500 this late in the year -- and it’s only mid-April. The Cubs set the bar very high with a historic run last season, and they’re just not reaching it at the moment.

“It happened to us last year right before the All-Star break,” Schwarber said. “We hit the skids. Hopefully, maybe we’re hitting it early. We’re super-early in the season still. Like I said, no panic.”

It is early and the Cubs aren’t playing well at the moment. Manager Joe Maddon is mostly focused on his bullpen, which helped the Brewers turn a 4-3 lead into a 6-3 bulge on Monday. It’s a trend that could turn into a pattern before long.

“That last inning could have played so differently had we just kept it 4-3,” Maddon said. “More than anything, we have to get the bullpen guys, get their confidence back. That’s going to make the difference in the latter part of the game. Even if it’s a deficit, to keep it a small deficit.”

The Cubs’ bullpen is 1-4 with a 4.10 ERA. That’s hardly championship-caliber. But just as Lackey stated, the Cubs need to pick up their intensity, he was the first to declare he won’t judge his team for about 27 more games.

“In the last 10 years or so, I break up the season into quarters,” Lackey explained. “We’ll see where we are then. Right now, it’s pretty early.”

Back and forth, the rhetoric alternated. Mostly players settled on it being early, and though the Cubs won’t say it, there wasn’t much of a chance they could have duplicated last season's start, when they won 25 of their first 31 games. It just wasn’t realistic for a team that broke the longest professional championship drought in history, then had a short offseason and a purposely laid-back spring training.

It's early, and the Cubs aren't playing up to expectations. We know for sure one of those facts will change, and the baseball world is fairly certain the other one will, as well.

“We’re 12, 13 games into the season,” Albert Almora Jr. said. “We’re competitors. We want to win every game, but it's baseball. We’ll be fine.”