2012 final series: Houston Astros continue the winning march in the second game
Having won the first game by 3-0, and adding to the Chicago Cubs woes, the Houston Astros came confidently in the second game. With incredibly superb form, the Astros maintained their lead, and scored second consecutive victory in the series with 3-0 win.
While the Astros batters proved their instrumentality once again, it was Bud Norris who gave a tough time to the Cubs batters, keeping the Astros ascendancy intact. Pitching six shutout innings, the Astros had third straight shutout since 1986 when they
did it the last time.
With the win that the Astros scored here, the Cubs lost 101th game of the season. Coming after a year when they had lost 91 games, and manager Mike Quade was dismissed, this was a big setback to the Cubs.
It was Jason Castro who smashed a big homer in the second inning against the Chris Volstad, giving the Astros a safe 1-0 lead. Tyler Greene single to right in the same inning added to the team’s lead, making it 2-0 for the Astros as the second inning came
to end.
Although Volstad pitched extraordinarily good innings afterwards, he somehow could not get the much-needed support from the Chicago Cubs offence. Norris was a tough challenge for the Cubs’ batters as the maintained the team’s 2-0 lead.
It was the batting that was struggling once again, adding to the Cubs’ woes. "Not a lot of quality at-bats again, left some guys on, striking out with guys in scoring position again," Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. "It's kind of typifying the whole season,
these last two nights swinging the bats."
As Norris concluded his sixth inning, maintaining the team’s ascendancy, it was Xavier Cedeno who came to pitch the seventh inning. He finished it successfully with two strikeouts. Chuckie Fick came down harder on the Cubs’ batters along with Wesley Wright,
and ended the eighth inning, maintain the team’s lead.
"I can't say enough about our bullpen today,' interim manager Tony DeFrancesco said. Either way, we're going to finish strong, We're going to finish .500 for the month, and we're really excited about the future, what's going on for next season."
Brian Bogusevic walked and scored in the eighth for the Astros to take the lead to irreversible 3-0, bringing the Astros in the commanding position. Cubs’ batters, like the previous game, could not live up to the expectations of the team.
It was the Astros closer Wilton Lopez who came, and came down hard on the Cubs offence in the ninth inning, ending the game with 3-0 victory – the second for the Astros against the Cubs, and third in row.
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