The Houston Astros End The Season The Way They Began It

With a loss. The difference between today's game and the Season Opener was that it was at home and it was against the Colorado Rockies. The similarity is that today's loss snapped a three game winning streak and the Season opener loss was the beginning of a three game winning streak.

The Game

For two hundred-loss teams the excitement of this game matched some of the playoff excitement going on around the rest of the league. The Astros scored first with an RBI single to left that scored Matt Dominguez. Bryan LaHair would tie it for the Cubs with a solo homerun in the bottom of the second inning. The Cubs would take the lead after an Anthony Recker walk with the bases loaded. That was followed by a Travis Wood single that scored two runs. The Astros would tie it again in the top of the eight when Justin Maxwell homered after Jed Lowrie and Matt Dominguez reached base. The Cubs would rally to win in the ninth when Bryan laHair with the bases loaded hit a single to right scoring Tony Campana.

And that was that, season over.

The Season

I don't think any Astros fan would say it's been a good season, but it has been an interesting one. We learned what the plan was and what Jeff Luhnow was capable of in both the draft and trade market; he got thumbs up in both areas. We learned that a team can win only three games in a month and 15 in another. We learned that Deadspin loves the Astros.

We learned that we've got some great writers on this site who made it through quite possibly the worst season yet. From clack's weekly sabermetric articles, to subber10's daily Minor League recaps, to conroestro's pitching expertise, to CRperry13 and BustaPozee's highly entertaining recaps, these guys helped us get through the season with weekly contributions. I also want to thank every writer who got on the front page or created a fan post, there was a lot of great discussion and contributions that we haven't seen in years past.

We learned that we have an awesome community. Everyone who commented on this site has contributed to making this place one of the best places to go for Astros discussion. Even those who don't comment or contribute have contributed to this site. We see the numbers and we know you're there. This community is what motivates us to do more and get better at what we do. Every since I've come on to write for this site we've upped the ante on what we do here and I can't wait to see what 2013 brings.

Thank you for making 2012 a wonderful season.