MILWAUKEE — As the calendar flips to July, the Cubs know where they stand.

“Frustrating place to be for the group,” Ian Happ said after the Cubs dropped the series finale to the Brewers at American Family Fields. “We’re obviously not close to where we want to be.”

Just past the halfway point of the season and entering the final month of play before the trade deadline, the Cubs sit 7 games under .500, in last place in the NL Central, 11.5 games back of the Brewers and 5 back of the final NL Wild Card spot. It’s not where the Cubs pictured themselves when the season began.

This was a team returning almost the entire nucleus of a team that fell one game short of a playoff position last year and entered the season with the best farm system in the game, with a corps of players ready to help augment the big-league squad.

“I still feel incredibly bullish on those things, but it has been a really rough two-month stretch,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said ahead of the Brewers series. “I don’t think it takes away from all those things that are there — the farm system, the good young talent, etc. But at the same time, yeah, I get it. I think that our projection win totals were higher this year than last year, internally, externally.

“I think that when you look at the way we performed this year with a team that’s stronger, it’s less. And is that frustrating to me? Absolutely. And if it’s frustrating to me, I have to imagine it’s frustrating to the fans. So yeah, I think that it is something that I completely empathize with.”

Hoyer, like the rest of the team, is trying to keep perspective on the number of games still left in the season. They believe that the team record now is not indicative of who they can be — as difficult as that may seem to look now.

“I would also argue I think that casting everything in a negative light based on two months, I think that’s also a mistake,” Hoyer said. “I think that we have a really talented roster. I think we have a ton of young talent on this team. We have a ton of young talent in the minor leagues. There’s a lot of really good things happening.

“I think it’s a danger to sort of paint everything with a brush of what’s happened, over these two months, just as it would have been inappropriate at the end of April to start planning a parade.”

For now, they embark on a pivotal 30 days or so of play that could dictate what path the team takes at the end of July.

“I think we have to perform in July, take away the second part,” manager Craig Counsell said. “I think we have to perform in July.”

Cubs players know that, too.

“Just over the halfway point, there’s a lot of baseball left,” Happ said. “I think we have to find a way to string a couple [of] series together. It’s a game at a time, but we need to win a series and get on a little bit of a run here and win some of those.”

After sweeping a 3-game set against the Astros and taking the series opener in Boston, the Cubs were 17-9 and looked prime to start a soaring run. Instead, things have fallen — quickly. The Cubs are 22-37 and haven’t won three straight games since then. It’s been a lot of stops and not too much go.

“We’ve struggled to win the first game of the series,” Happ said. “Had a couple games like [Sunday’s] where it’s, we got a chance to win the series and get some momentum going and don’t get it done so far. We’re gonna have to string a few wins together and see what we can do.”

It’ll begin Tuesday, when the Cubs take on the best team in the National League, the Phillies, for a 3-game set. As Counsell said, the Cubs must perform in July.

“We have some of our leaders doing the things we need to do,” Kyle Hendricks said. “Just still that inconsistency. So, the sense of urgency’s been there, it’s still there. We’re focused on the day-to-day.

“We have to take care of our jobs, take care of our business. It starts with each individual. So, me, focus on doing my job to the best of my ability, doing what I can, I just didn’t do it [Sunday], especially that 4th inning.”