With Brett Favre headed to New York, Packers fans can focus on football and Brewers fans can focus on another pennant race. For the second consecutive year, the Brewers enter the second week of August coming off a dugout scrap but right in the thick of it, sitting five games behind the division-leading Cubs in the National League Central and holding a half-game lead over the Cardinals in the NL Wild Card standings.

Last year on Aug. 7, the Brewers were clinging to a one-game lead in the division over the Cubs, who ended up winning the NL Central by two games. Chicago is in an excellent position to repeat, but that apparently is not deterring Brewers slugger Prince Fielder.

"The Wild Card is fine, but you want to win your division," said Fielder, who was the principal combatant in the Brewers' most recent tussle. "The Wild Card is great, but that's like a secondary thing."

Perhaps that outlook will change as the days peel away in August and the calendar turns to September. But Fielder and the Brewers went into Thursday -- their first off-day since the All-Star break -- still focused squarely on the Cubs.

The schedule could work -- if only slightly -- in Milwaukee's favor. Twenty-five of their remaining 47 games are against teams taking losing records into Thursday's action. And, eight of the remaining games against winning clubs come vs. Chicago and St. Louis, and could present opportunities for Milwaukee to either close or widen gaps in the standings.

The Brewers' late-season schedule is also home heavy. Following the team's West Coast road trip next week, 23 of Milwaukee's final 38 games are at Miller Park -- including 17 of 27 games in September.

The Cubs, meanwhile, play 26 of their 47 remaining games against winning clubs, including each of the final 13.

"It doesn't do much good to think about the Cubs unless it's a day you're playing them," said veteran infielder Craig Counsell, who admitted he would be watching on the other days. "It's just natural to watch those scoreboards during games to see what other teams are doing. You really can't help it."

The Brewers dropped their first big test, losing four in a row to the Cubs at Miller Park this past week. While Chicago and Milwaukee rest Thursday, the Cardinals play with a chance to tie the Brewers atop the Wild Card standings.

Fans already have an eye on the race. Players are getting to that point, too.

"I think everyone is starting to pay attention to those types of things because it's getting to that time of the year," said center fielder Mike Cameron. "You really start looking at the standings when they start posting them in USA Today."

The Wild Card standings were not yet listed in Thursday's editions.

"But it's that time of year, man," Cameron said. "There's still a lot of games to play, but the significance is that you don't want to be in a bad position. We're in a pretty good position through all of the stuff that has gone on over the last couple of weeks."

It has been a turbulent two weeks for the Brewers, who were swept away in ugly fashion by the Cubs from July 28-31 while being outscored, 31-11, and being outplayed in every phase of the game. The Brewers found more success during a weeklong 4-2 road trip to Atlanta and Cincinnati, but the trip will be mostly remembered for the Aug. 4 dugout scrap between Fielder and pitcher Manny Parra -- for which Fielder later apologized.

Parra called the issue "done," and he and Fielder apparently sat down the next day to talk it out, but it remains to be seen if the incident has any effect. Last year, the Brewers were already in their midseason tailspin when manager Ned Yost got into a dugout shouting match with catcher Johnny Estrada and infielder Tony Graffanino on Aug. 2. The Brewers finished the month with a 9-18 record.

That year is different, Yost said this week -- while continuing to insist he orchestrated last year's distraction to see if any of his veterans would step up to protect the team's younger players.

"Now our players are kind of standing up for each other, policing themselves," Yost said. "It's a whole different scenario for the better, big time."

On Wednesday morning, he added, "I've never had proactive veterans, ever."

That has changed this season, according to Yost, who points to the acquisitions of Cameron, Jason Kendall, Ray Durham, Gabe Kapler and CC Sabathia. All these players, like incumbents Counsell and Jeff Suppan, have postseason experience.

Yost and his coaches are a year more experienced, too. The skipper has tried to stay steady during his team's roller coaster start to the second half. The Brewers are 11-2 on the road and 1-6 at home since the All-Star break, a reversal of their usual trend.

"When things are going rough, the first thing the players look at is the manager and the coaches," Yost said. "If the manager and the coaches are freaking out, then the players go, 'Oh, man!' But if they come in and see us steady in our approach, staying positive, keep working, knowing that we have a talented team, when they walk in they go, 'OK, it must not be so bad.'"

Added Suppan: "Experience is taking over now. The core of the team has been together for a while now ... and I think when you get a team that's a little more experienced, you're able to understand situations, confront them and move on. You can see that maturity with that team."

Yost was selling the team's most recent scuffle as a potential positive.

"These things can be very beneficial for a team," Yost said. "They can be detrimental, or they can be very, very beneficial. They sure can. Not only for the team, but for individual players."

What determines which way it goes?

"I guess we'll find out," Yost said.