Levine: Season On The Brink After Cubs Falter
By Bruce Levine--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Nobody on the Cubs would acknowledge beforehand that Game 3 of the NLCS on Tuesday night was a must-win situation, but it was as close as you could get to that for right-hander Kyle Hendricks and his teammates.
Once again, poor execution on the Cubs' behalf and another great start by a Mets starter was too much for Chicago to overcome. On this night, it was New York grabbing a 5-2 win at Wrigley Field to go up 3-0 in the series, putting Chicago on the brink of elimination as Game 4 awaits Wednesday night.
The game was a see-saw battle early on, until the Cubs defense let them down and Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom did the rest. He threw seven strong innings, allowing four hist and two runs, both earned, while striking out seven and walking just one.
Solo home runs by Kyle Schwarber and Jorge Soler were the only times the Cubs touched up deGrom. Schwarber's blast was his fifth homer of the postseason and sent the Wrigley Field faithful into a frenzy in the bottom of the first inning.
Meanwhile, Hendricks was yanked after four innings in which he allowed two runs, both earned -- one on a first-inning RBI double by Yoenis Cespedes and another on a third-inning homer by Daniel Murphy.
"They have outplayed us these first three games," Hendricks said. "No doubt about it. We haven't put up enough runs, and we have not kept enough runs off of the board."
Hendricks worked out of trouble in the second inning, as he induced deGrom to hit into a double play with two on and one out to end the threat, But he was burned in the third inning by Murphy, baseball's hottest hitter who has now tied a postseason record with a round-tripper in his fifth straight game. He has six homers in the playoffs.
"We definitely wanted to get this one," Hendricks said. "deGrom pitched well, especially in those later innings. Luckily, we still have another chance. We are not out of it yet. You never know what can happen."
The Cubs live and die with the long ball. Soler tied the game in the fourth inning with his third postseason homer off of a 3-2 serving from deGrom, but that would be all the offense Chicago could muster. For the third straight game, the Cubs managed exactly five hits.
Poor execution cost the Cubs the lead in the sixth inning. Chicago reliever Trevor Cahill made two costly mistakes that accounted for a run. After Cespedes singled to right to start the frame, Lucas Duda bunted him to second.
On the ensuing sequence, Cahill looked Cespedes back once, but Cespedes then took off and easily stole third base. After a Travis d'Arnaud grounder failed to get the run home, Michael Conforto swung and missed at strike three with two outs, but the pitch bounced in front of and away from Cubs catcher Miguel Montero. It went to the backstop as Cespedes scored the Mets' the go-ahead run.
"That was a tough one," said Montero, who had blocked several balls in the dirt just before that. "Today I thought we had good at-bats, but we could not get anything going. We could not get a couple of guys on. We failed to create any momentum. What can I say, you have to go home. Try to sleep and come back tomorrow."
The seventh didn't go any better for the Cubs. After a one-out double by David Wright, Murphy grounded a ball to Chicago third baseman Kris Bryant that was routine, but Bryant double-pumped, allowing Murphy to beat it out for an infield single to put runners on the corners. Cespedes followed with a line drive to left field that went off of Schwarber's wrist and was ruled an RBI single. The fifth run scored on a groundout.
"The Mets are one game from their first World Series appearance since 2000. The Cubs will need some kind of baseball god intervention to get back into this series.
"Well, the confidence in this clubhouse will never go away," a dejected-but-defiant Anthony Rizzo said. "We just have to keep playing baseball. One New York team has blown a 3-0 lead (the 2004 Yankees in an ALCS loss to the Red Sox). Let's make it the other 3-0 team now. That is the only way we can look at it. We have to be optimistic and come out playing baseball."
Of course, Rizzo's reference has a Cubs tie. President of baseball operations Theo Epstein was the Red Sox general manager in 2004 when that historic comeback happened against the Yankees.
What will happen might depend on how Cubs manager Joe Maddon uses his pitching staff moving forward. He named Jason Hammel his starter for Game 4, though the Cubs could end up using their entire staff as they face elimination with one more loss.
"This one stinks," Rizzo said. "You never wan to be down 3-0. We are, so we will be ready to go tomorrow. That is all we can do."
Bruce Levine covers the Cubs and White Sox for 670 The Score and CBSChicago.com. Follow him on Twitter @MLBBruceLevine.