The 2004 Cubs were supposed to be better than the 2003 version. You know how this all ended, but they started out fairly well and were in a tight NL Central race until a stretch in early July where they lost nine of 12 (and four of five to the first-place Cardinals) shunted them off to the wild-card race.
They were in the thick of that when they visited Philadelphia toward the end of the month. The teams had split the first two games of the series and were matched up in a Sunday afternoon finale with Mark Prior facing hard throwing Philly lefthander Eric Milton.