Cubs in must-win mode after Mets take Game 3

Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo put it succinctly, and even though he did use a time-honored cliché, he was spot on.

“Our backs are against the wall; there's no hiding that,” Rizzo said Tuesday night, minutes after the Cubs dropped a 5-2 decision to the New York Mets in Game 3 of the National League championship series at Wrigley Field. “We have to win. We can't lose. But this team has responded well.”

A victory Wednesday night would give the Mets a four-game sweep and punch their ticket to the World Series while sending a young Cubs team home to reflect on a great season overall.

“Not right now; we're in the heat of battle,” said rookie left fielder Kyle Schwarber, whose first-inning home run was his fifth of the postseason, a Cubs record. “There's time to look back when all this is done. We're just focused on winning one more game at a time right now.”

Even when the Cubs were only down 2-0 in the series after losing twice in New York, manager Joe Maddon talked of putting together one-game winning streaks instead of trying to do it all at once.

Trying to put together four winning streaks of one game each will be a tough task against a stingy Mets pitching staff. But don't look for Maddon to give any speeches before Game 4 — he said nothing to the team after Tuesday's loss.

“Win on Wednesday,” he said. “It's just about tomorrow. Of course, we have to win four in a row, absolutely, but I want us just to concentrate on tomorrow's game. That's it.

“I don't have team meetings. I don't believe in them. For me to stand up and give a speech has nothing to do with tomorrow at all. Our guys know how to come prepared to play. I expect the same thing tomorrow. The Mets have just pitched exceptionally well, and you've got to give them credit in these three games.”

Tuesday's game did not look like a favorable matchup beforehand. The Mets sent Jacob deGrom to the mound, and he was fresh off winning two games against the Dodgers in the division series.

The Cubs went with youngster Kyle Hendricks, who moved up from fourth to third in the rotation for the postseason.

Hendricks gave up a run in the first inning before Schwarber's opposite-field blast tied the game in the bottom of the inning. Nobody's been able to stop the Mets' Daniel Murphy, and he hit a solo homer off Hendricks in the third. It was Murphy's sixth postseason homer.

With the weather almost summerlike in Chicago — temperatures in New York for the first two games were in the 40s — Maddon went back to Jorge Soler in right field, and Soler took to the 72-degree night by hitting a solo homer in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2 and bring the Wrigley Field crowd of 42,231 to life.

“Soler is in the lineup because in this ballpark, under these conditions, there is a decent opportunity he could put the ball over the wall,” a prophetic-sounding Maddon said before the game.

Things turned in the sixth and seventh against the Cubs, who even got a big break their way.

With two outs and Cespedes on third base in the sixth, Michael Conforto struck out against Trevor Cahill. But the ball got away from catcher Miguel Montero for a wild pitch and a dropped third strike, allowing Yoenis Cespedes to score.

“I blocked like three (pitches) before that,” Montero said. “It was a tough one.”

Right before that, the Cubs allowed Cespedes to steal third base easily.

The Cubs got their break when Wilmer Flores' hit to right field got past Soler. Conforto would have scored easily, but the ball got stuck in the ivy for a ground-rule double, meaning Conforto had to go back to third base. Mets manager Terry Collins argued vociferously with home-plate umpire Ted Barrett, but the call was out of the umpires' hands because of the Wrigley Field ground rule.

DeGrom flied out to end the inning with only 1 run having scored. The Mets did manage a pair of important runs in the seventh.

The Cubs will use Jason Hammel to pitch Game 4 before they can get back to aces Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta.

“We've got to come back and win one game at a time,” Montero said. “We've got to go home, try to forget what happened today. It was a tough one. We're really out of options. The only option we have is to win tomorrow.”