The Cardinals entered Wrigley field for a brief two-game series against the Cubs in mid-July of 2004, holding an eight game divisional lead over their long time rivals. The facts of this series were pretty straightforward:
Through an odd scheduling quirk, this series was the final time these two teams would meet during the regular season that year.
If the Cubs had any realistic hopes of catching the Cards for the NL Central title, they needed to win both games and reduce the deficit to six games.
If the Cardinals split, they knew they would leave town still ahead by eight games. If they swept, the could essentially put the Cubs out of their minds.
The first game got a little heated, as Carlos Zambrano lived up to his hothead reputation, throwing at Jim Edmonds twice and getting ejected from the game.