CHICAGO – The Brewers got one step closer to their first division title in 29 years Tuesday with a 5-1 victory over the Cubs at Wrigley Field.

Shaun Marcum led the way, pitching eight strong innings, matching his longest outing of the season. The right-hander scattered six hits and allowed just one run, a solo home run by Starlin Castro, while striking out seven.

"He had good command early, (his) pitches were down in the zone," manager Ron Roenicke said. "The first inning, he came out and was hitting spots right away. When he's down, he's really good."

The victory was Marcum's first since Sept. 4 at Houston and just the second in his last five starts. He improved to 13-7 on the season and his earned run average dropped to 3.31.

"I just wanted to come out and get back to what I was doing prior to (my) last two starts," Marcum said. "It's nice to get the win on top of that but, more importantly, to locate all my pitches and stay down in the zone."

Marcum also contributed in a big way on offense, reaching one a one-out double in the Brewers' third, which sparked a run of four straight base hits and gave Milwaukee an early, 4-1 lead.

"It was nice to see that," Roenicke said. "I'm real happy with the offense."

Meanwhile, in St. Louis, the Cardinals kept the magic number at three for the Brewers by rallying for an 11-6 victory over the Mets at Busch Stadium. New York jumped out to an early lead and St. Louis tied things up in the fifth. The Mets went ahead again in the seventh but the Cardinals answered back, scoring six times with two outs to take the lead for good.

So now, here's the situation: The Brewers wrap up the road trip tomorrow in Chicago and have Thursday off. They return to action Friday night against Florida at Miller Park. The Cardinals have two more against the Mets, Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon.

In theory, the Brewers could still end up winning the division by doing nothing; they could win tomorrow and St. Louis could lose its next two, eliminating the Cardinals (from the division race) Thursday afternoon. Considering how well St. Louis has played of late, it's an unlikely scenario, but one that is still possible.

"We can't worry about that," said outfielder Nyjer Morgan, who went 2-for-4 with a walk, an RBI and two runs scored. "We know what's going on, we know they're hot over there but we can only worry about what the Brew Crew is doing."

Don't expect the Brewers, though, to lay off the gas in hopes of wrapping up the NL Central at home.

"We want to go out and play to hopefully win right away, Roenicke said. "We're certainly not going to go out there and save anything. I'd like to stay on a nice roll. We played really well in Cincinnati, we didn't play so well yesterday, but we came out and played well today. I'd like to keep it going like that."

Tomorrow's game gets under way at 1:20 p.m. with Randy Wolf (13-9, 3.45) facing Matt Garza (8-10, 3.51). You can catch it live on FS Wisconsin or on the Brewers Radio Network.