There have been a few bright spots in the 2012 season for the Chicago Cubs, one of which has been the performance of starting pitcher Travis Wood. Wood continued his solid pitching on Wednesday night in Chicago's 5-to-1 victory over the Houston Astros, allowing only one earned run and four hits over 7.2 innings while striking out six.
While Wood put the clamp on Houston's bats, Chicago's hitters plucked out five runs. The first came in the top of the first inning when Wellington Castillo scored Darwin Barney with a single to right field. Alfonso Soriano extended the lead to 2-0 with a homer to left in the top of the fifth, and then pushed the score to 3-to-0 with a single in the seventh inning.
Chicago extended the lead to 4-to-0 in the eighth when Anthony Recker doubled to center, but the Astros narrowed the lead to three when Fernando Martinez singled in the bottom of the inning. Chicago capped off the scoring when Tony Campana scored on a passed ball in the top of the ninth.
The Cubs will take Thursday off before returning to the field on Friday at Wrigley, where they will be hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates for a weekend series.
Head over to Bleed Cubbie Blue for more Cubs news, and check out The Crawfish Boxes for more on the Astros. Also visit Baseball Nation for even more analysis from around the league.
