On Tuesday, the Chicago Cubs snapped an eight-game losing skid with a 6-1, rain-shortened victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hopefully, the fanatical base of Cubs nation has taken a collective step away from the ledge.Losing streaks are highly unpleasant for the team and fans alike. Although it’s hard to absorb while your favorite squad is in the midst of a bad stretch, sooner or later the forest will emerge from the trees, streaks are a big part of baseball.

What’s made this latest losing streak difficult for Cubs fans is it was the longest since the forgettable 2002 campaign. Last season, there was a six-gamer, but most of Lou Piniella’s tenure as manager has been devoid of skids.

What Cubs fans forget is the skid started after a five-game winning streak.

To be a factor at the end of the season, baseball math requires that each losing skid be met with a near equal winning streak. The team then must play .540 baseball outside of their streaks and you’ve got yourself an 85-to-90 victory club.

While not the easiest on its fans, teams can choose the other path — opting to parlay a streaky nature into a successful year.

The Milwaukee Brewers did just that en route to a 90-72 wild-card winner last season.

The Brewers had 13 streaks of four or more games — eight winning, five losing. While the longest losing streak was five (four times), Milwaukee had winning streaks of eight, seven and six games.

The Brewers made their hay inside streaks to the tune of 43-24. Between streaks, the Crew was a pedestrian 47-48.

*Wait ’til next year: The Carthage College baseball team and its head coach Augie Schmidt fell short in their bid for an NCAA Division-3 national championship in Grand Chute.

The Red Men (38-9) won both the regular-season and tournament titles of the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin and advanced through the regional for just the seventh time in school history.

At the D-3 Championship, Carthage suffered one loss apiece to the finalists. An opening 7-1 loss to College of Wooster (Ohio) and a 3-1 setback to University of St. Thomas (Minn.) on Monday. The Tommies beat the Fighting Scots twice on Tuesday to capture the crown.

While the Red Men lose key lineup pieces to graduation like Mike Hughes, John Lequia, Chris Shannon and Mark Sobol, Carthage’s rotation of Jordan Jaehne-Llanas, Mario Perez, Trace Ruffie, Eric Rohe and Andy Pucher all have eligibility remaining.

That depth and this year’s experience on the mound should bode well for the 2010 campaign.

*Book it (14-11): The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Detroit Red Wings in overtime in last Friday’s Game 3 of the Western Conference finals to make good on my prediction.

Cleveland will beat Orlando in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals tonight. Doubling up: Orlando will finish off the series in Game 6 on Saturday.

Mike Larsen is a sports writer for the News. E-mail him at mlarsen@kenoshanews.com