2012 finale series: Chicago Cubs stage a comeback with 5-4 win
With two consecutive victories, the Houston Astros could not continue it in the third game wherein the Chicago Cubs made a surprise comeback with Bryan LaHair’game winning single in the ninth inning, ending the season with 5-4 win.
With the defeat, the Houston Astros finished one of the worst seasons in the franchise’s history, losing a record 107 games, winning only 55 in the whole season. The Cubs, on the other hand, ended it with 101 losses, winning a total of 61.
"That's the goal of a season where we didn't win as much as we wanted to," shortstop Jed Lowrie said. "To finish strong gives everybody a good feeling going home."
With Travis Wood and Edgar Gonzalez facing each other on the mound, it was the Astros that scored first as Matt Dominguez scored in the very first inning. Bryan LaHair, though , levelled the score in the second inning with his homer to left.
It was then Anthony Recker who walked and gave the team 2-1 lead as the Chicago Cubs marched forward towards victory. Travis Wood, while being extraordinarily good with pitching, singled to left in the fourth to take the Cubs’ lead to 4-1 as the fourth inning
concluded.
With 4-1 lead, Wood kept the ascendancy, seemingly edging the Cubs way past the Astros. However, things got a huge turn in the eighth inning.
It was Justin Maxwell’s three-run homer that tied the score in the eighth, bringing tremendous excitement in the game as the Astros seemed all poised to sweep the last series of the season against the Chicago Cubs.
With the score tied, the Cubs were to avoid the sweep, and they did it successfully. This time Bryan LaHair who came up with game winning single in the ninth, shattering the Astros dream of being the dominant one in the series.
"A lot of hard work was put in this year," LaHair said. "Unfortunately, the record didn't say that, but just to finish the season with a win, it's always fun to do that."
Carlos Marmol came down hard on the Astros batters in the ninth, and had a scoreless inning to end the game with the team’s 5-4 win.
While the season ended with the win in the last game for the Chicago Cubs, it was the Astros who actually remained victors in the series with 2-1 win. In their last 12 games, the Cubs had 20 homers which was a record in itself, seven of which came in the
seven straight games.
The season as a whole, however, ended poorly both for the Astros and the Cubs who lost more than 100 games, hoping they will have a better performance in 2013.
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