CHICAGO -- In each of the past three games, the Cubs have taken the lead on a home run. And for the third straight game, the Cubs lost the game.
Kyle Schwarber belted an opposite-field homer with one out in the first inning on Tuesday night, which fired up the sellout crowd of 41,871 at Wrigley Field. But the lead was short-lived as Andre Ethier tied the game with a leadoff blast in the second to spark the Dodgers, who posted a 6-1 win. Los Angeles now has a daunting 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series presented by Camping World.
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"Whenever you can jump out to an early lead, you want that to be the momentum," Schwarber said. "Any way you can get the crowd into it, the players enjoy it, I'm enjoying it. You want that momentum."
Dodgers starter Yu Darvish heard the Cubs fans.
"I realize I'm on the visitor side," said Darvish, whose only other Wrigley Field start was a loss last year with Texas. "And the first home run I gave up to Schwarber, after he hit, the stadium got really excited and all that stuff. But I was able to focus just to pitch after that home run."
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Ethier felt the surge, too.
"They were riding that momentum on Schwarber's first-inning home run right there," Ethier said. "You can look at it two ways -- 'Here we go again,' or you can just say, 'We need to answer and we're going to fight.' That's what we're doing.
"Like I said, these guys are really good over there," Ethier said. "[They've been to the] NLCS three years in a row and a World Series champion, so they know how to win. We're the ones who have to knock them off, and that's what we're doing and trying to do."
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Schwarber's blast was his sixth career postseason home run, and he's now tied with Anthony Rizzo for the most in Cubs history.
In the ninth inning, Schwarber showed his defensive skills when he threw out Yasiel Puig, who tried to stretch a single into a double. Second baseman Javier Baez made the nifty tag.

Sometimes, plays like that can spark a team, too.
"It's not an ideal situation," Schwarber said of the Cubs' being one game away from elimination, "but you have to have a positive outlook. We still have nine innings to go. There's no guarantees after that. We have to go out there and play our best nine innings. There ain't no hanging heads now. This is postseason baseball and a lot of things can happen."