It’s dark in Chicago right now. It’s especially dark at Wrigley Field, and it will remain that way until next spring. The Cubs lost to the Mets tonight by a score of 8-3 and are done for the season.

Despite their bright future, it will be a winter of discontent for the supposedly-cursed franchise. That’s always the case when you enter a league championship series with high expectations, only to fall short. It’s even worse when you’re unceremoniously swept.

The beat down was methodical and severe. To many, it was preordained. After all, these are the Cubs. As Steve Goodman sang in A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request, “You raise up a young boy’s hopes and then just crush ’em like so many paper beer cups. Year after year after year after year after year after year after year after year.”

But to be honest, that refrain has grown old. History and hexes had nothing to do with the sweep. They lost to a darn good team. In Game One, it was a Dark Night who beat the Cubs, not a black cat. In Game Two, it was a Met named Murphy who did the damage, not a goat named Murphy. Steve Bartman didn’t reach out and cause the run-scoring wild pitch that gave New York a lead they didn’t relinquish in Game 3. As for Game 4, Chicago hosts a Lebowski Fest and Lucas Duda’s nickname is The Big Lebowski. That’s ironic as hell, but it’s not a curse.

On the off chance you missed tonight’s game, Duda crushed the souls of Cubs fans with a three-run jack in the first inning. He then drilled a two-run double in the second to put the home team in a 6-0 hole.

The early onslaught that buried the Cubs was exactly what multiple Mets were looking for. Following Game 3, Michael Conforto told me his team “can’t afford to take anything off the throttle, because they’re very explosive and you don’t want to let them get anything started.” Tyler Clippard agreed, saying, “We have to keep our nose to the grindstone, because once a team starts to get a leg up on you, momentum can shift pretty quickly.”

Momentum was a foreign word for Joe Maddon’s team all week. Chicago never held a lead in the four games, largely because they didn’t have an answer for New York pitching. They certainly didn’t have one for Daniel Murphy. The Mets second baseman went an unreal 9 for 17, and homered in each game. Curse him if you want, Cubs fans, but he had an NLCS for the ages. Along with his teammates, he’s on his way to the World Series.

As for the team that calls Wrigley home, a “Let’s Go Cubbies” chant broke out as the Mets dogpiled on the mound. It was brief — much like the just-completed series — but it was heartfelt. These are, after all, the Cubs.