CHICAGO -- In between the seventh and eighth innings Tuesday night, the Cubs' videoboard played its usual "Great Moment in Cubs History" segment. Typically, it's a repeat of Kerry Wood's 20-strikeout game, but this time it was the Cubs' six-homer game in the 2015 National League Division Series.

Ah, those halcyon days of last week.

Fast forward seven days and the Cubs' dream season is just about done after a third straight loss in the National League Championship Series. The cocky, confident, fun-loving Cubs were nowhere to be found after a 5-2 loss at Wrigley Field in Game 3 of the best-of-seven series.

They said the right things about fighting back and winning one game at a time, but if we know how this story is ending, they have a clue.

"Lady Luck isn't on our side right now," said Kyle Schwarber, who hit his fifth homer of the postseason, breaking the club's single-season record. Jorge Soler added his third homer of the postseason. Sounds about right. Twenty-one of the team's 29 runs in the playoffs have come via the long ball.

Mets starter Jacob deGrom settled down after a rocky beginning, and pitched seven innings in a third straight solid outing for the Mets' formidable staff.

The Cubs could use one of those homers a little earlier in the game, as they haven't led the Mets yet. There isn't much cause for optimism against a Mets team that is simply better than them. There is nothing ghoulish going on, so keep your goats at home. The Cubs bats are only cursed by great Mets pitching.

"Our backs are against the wall, there's no hiding that," Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo said. "We can't lose. There's no tomorrow, if we lose. But this team has responded well."

The Cubs won 97 games and rolled over the Pirates and the Cardinals this month. Who would've predicted the Mets would be one win from being the last team standing in the National League? No one and that's the point.

It's not over yet, of course. Even a sportswriter can count to four.

Cubs president Theo Epstein reminded reporters after the game about the team's nine discrete winning streaks of four or more games this season and, ever so slyly, about his 2004 Red Sox winning four straight in the ALCS over the Yankees.

"It's Happened Before" could be the new rallying cry around here, right?

"One New York team's blown a 3-0 lead; let's make it the other New York team," Rizzo said. "That's the way we're going to look at it."

There's no other way to approach it for the Cubs, who aren't holding a team meeting before the game. The Irish wake comes later. Then sitting shiva for a week. But no rah-rah stuff from Cubs manager Joe Maddon, who has done a masterful job creating a clubhouse culture that balances fun and responsibility.

"For me to stand up and give a speech has nothing to do with tomorrow at all," Maddon said. "Our guys know how to come prepared to play. I expect the same thing tomorrow."

We're not here to bury the Cubs before they officially expire, but let's pick out a plot in the warning track and start shoveling just in case.

Don't get it twisted, it's been an enjoyable, fun-filled season and if the Cubs lose Wednesday, Thursday or back in Queens, it doesn't take anything away from what the team accomplished from April until this past Saturday.

The postseason, sure, would be considered a failure with an NLCS loss to the Mets, but not the entire year.

Let's be realistic, this Cubs team, full of young players and frankly, a host of subpar defenders, wasn't ready for this stage. That's not an excuse, it's just an observation based on watching the last three games and sifting through all the good times to find clues on how it could all go south. You can't blame youth. The Cubs' hitters just didn't come through at the end against some really, really tough starting pitching. It happens.

But this deficit isn't just because of hitting. The Cubs haven't pitched well enough or played good enough defense to beat the Mets. You have to do something well to win in October.

"There's no excuses," Rizzo said. "They're young too. Their pitchers are young too. It's their first taste of the postseason. It's our first taste, for the most part. So they have veteran players, but all those pitchers we're facing, they're just as young as we are."

Rizzo talked to reporters in a flat, dispassionate voice that belied any confident words he tried to express. He might say, "It's baseball" when asked about the disappointment he's feeling, but he knows you only get so many chances to make a World Series. At 26, Rizzo should have plenty more opportunities. But this one was real and in front of his face.

Unfortunately, Cubs fans had this series in front of their collective faces.

This game had some very familiar Cubtober moments. There was ready-made villain in Daniel Murphy, who homered for his fifth straight playoff game with a third-inning shot off Cubs starter Kyle Hendricks.

"We were talking in the dugout and being here in Chicago, [Murphy] should have given the shoulder shrug to [Michael] Jordan after that last one," Mets third baseman David Wright said.

There were some disastrous defensive plays, typically an October calling card for this franchise.

The game started with an E-6 on Javy Baez playing a shift -- I think it's safe to say the Cubs miss shortstop Addison Russell, who injured his hamstring in the last series -- and five innings later, the Mets scored what amounted to the winning run on a strike three wild pitch by Trevor Cahill in the sixth. Cahill threw two curveballs in the dirt to Miguel Montero before the errant pitch to Michael Conforto scored Yoenis Cespedes, who already had stolen third base.

"It really hurts," Montero said. "I've blocked pitches like that many times. I didn't block that one. It really hurts because it was strike three, but you know what happens, it's part of the game. We can't block every ball. I wish we could."

It could've been worse as the Cubs actually got some rare good fortune after that play. Soler made an awkward dive on a Wilmer Flores hit to right field and the ball rolled to the wall where fellow outfielder Dexter Fowler saw it trapped in the ivy and threw his hands up, stopping play and making it a ground-rule double. Conforto could've walked home, but he was brought back to third. Cahill got deGrom to fly out to end the inning.

No one knew how to react at Wrigley Field. A terrible Cubs play turned out ... OK? Must be an omen, a harbinger of good fortune.

Yeah right. The Mets waited until the next inning to twist the knife, scoring two insurance runs, including one on a Cespedes ball that bounced off Schwarber's arm. It was ruled a single, mercifully. Before that play, Kris Bryant couldn't get an out on a slow roller to third. It was that kind of game.

"Wild pitch on a strike three, that's a run," Maddon said. "A ball off Schwarber's glove, that's another run, but was contributed with the slow roller to third. All these things really become very important."

All of the talk about this being the Cubs' time has turned into a familiar static sound. Now it's clear whose time it is to get back to the World Series.