uts and no one on base in the ninth inning, Chicago rallied for four runs to take the lead.It was the Cubs 103rd win of the year

CINCINNATI -- The Chicago Cubs best regular season in 106 years came to an end Sunday as their final game, a 7-4 victory over the Reds, highlighted a remarkable year.Down 4-3 with two outs and no one on base in the ninth inning, Chicago rallied for four runs to take the lead.It was the Cubs 103rd win of the year. They were the only team in Major League Baseball to reach the 100-win plateau this season.The boxes have been checked in the regular season, manager Joe Maddon said before Sundays game. We won the division, we stayed relatively healthy, weve played well. ... All this stuff we talked about in camp regarding embracing the target and dealing with the pressure, weve done all those things.In the process the Cubs will have multiple candidates for multiple awards. Starting pitcher?Kyle Hendricks may have hurt his Cy Young cause a little Sunday as he gave up six hits and four runs over five innings, raising his ERA to 2.13. Its still good enough to win the ERA title by a wide margin. Left-hander?Jon Lester finished second in ERA at 2.44, making them the first teammates to finish 1-2 in the stat since the 2005 Houston Astros?Roger Clemens and?Andy Pettitte.With Cy Young candidate Max Scherzer?of the Washington Nationals seeing his ERA rise to 2.96 on Sunday, one of the two Cubs could take home the top pitching honor.I dont know which one deserves the Cy Young Award, catcher Miguel Montero said recently. Maybe they can split the award.At the plate, its a similar situation between sluggers Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant. They combined for 71 home runs and 211 RBIs while each hitting .292. Bryants 7.6 WAR led all National League players while Rizzo ranked fifth at 5.8 going into Sundays finale.Bryant is considered the front-runner for MVP after being named minor league player of the year and rookie of the year over the past two seasons.There were other major team accomplishments, including the pitching staff leading the league in ERA, while the Cubs top four hitters all produced on-base averages above .380. But as Lester noted Saturday, the past 162 games will have much less meaning if the Cubs dont go far in the postseason. Their last championship came in 1908.This season isnt anything unless we do what we showed up at spring training to do -- win a World Series, Lester said.The Cubs will have four days off to prepare for their second consecutive postseason appearance. Last year, they were the fun underdog and upset two teams that finished ahead of them in the standings. This year, they enter the playoffs as the team to beat, a near wire-to-wire winner in the division, sporting the best record in baseball for much of the season.Its go time, Lester said. Now we have to live up to the expectations and hype. Cheap Curry Shoes .Y. -- Bills receiver Stevie Johnson has a bone to pick with the NFL schedule maker. Wholesale Stephen Curry Shoes . Barcelonas entertaining victory ensured the defending Spanish champions retained their share of the league lead with Atletico Madrid two rounds ahead of their meeting in the capital. Real Madrid needed a late goal by substitute Jese Rodriguez to earn a 3-2 victory at Valencia to stay in third place and three points behind its title rivals. http://www.discountcurryshoes.com/ . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005. Buy Curry Shoes Online . PETERSBURG, Fla. Stephen Curry Shoes Clearance . Luis Suarezs double powered Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Fulham, and Southampton easily overcame Hull 4-1 to continue the south coast clubs impressive start to the season. Liverpool and Southampton sent Chelsea down to fourth place as the west London club was held to 2-2 at home. With Major League Baseballs winter meetings scheduled to start in less than a week, sources say club officials are aware of the possibility that teams wont participate if there is not sufficient progress in the on-going collective bargaining discussions.The current agreement expires Dec. 1, and the two sides are in negotiations in Dallas. The conversations have been far from seamless, and though sources on both sides believe the unsettled issues are not of such gravity that they threaten the integrity of the upcoming season, talks have progressed slowly.If the owners take the formal step of locking out the players once the current agreement expires, teams likely would not send representatives to the winter meetings in Washington, D.C.Much of the work done at the annual winter meetings is based on the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, and without rules in place, the busiiness of baseball would largely screech to a halt.ddddddddddddA lot of player agents and club evaluators believe the recent slowdown in the typical offseason movement is directly related to the growing uncertainty about the outcome and possible timing of the CBA discussions.I think everybody is just waiting to see what happens, one player representative said.The strategy of both leaderships may well be revealed Tuesday or Wednesday. The owners signaled flexibility in the issue of the international draft before, and now they have reportedly backed off the request. But sources familiar with the negotiations say this shift didnt jump-start the talks in the way the management side had hoped, and as of Monday evening, there was still a lot of progress needed. ' ' '