Aided by Castillo's walk and later an error by Cubs shortstop Alex Gonzalez on a potential double-play grounder, the Marlins went on to score eight runs in the inning and won the game 8–3.

They made it 6−4 in the sixth on Jeff Conine's sacrifice fly with runners on second and third, but the Cubs tied it in the bottom of the inning on Gonzalez's home run after Randall Simon doubled with two outs.

Mike Lowell's leadoff home run in the 11th put the Marlins up 9−8 and Braden Looper retired the Cubs in order in the bottom half to give Florida a 1−0 series lead.

[16][17][18][19] Wednesday, October 8, 2003 at Wrigley Field in Chicago In Game 2, the Cubs loaded the bases in the first on a hit and two walks off of Brad Penny when Randall Simon brought home two with a single to left.

Mark Prior pitched five shutout innings before allowing lead off home runs to Derrek Lee and Miguel Cabrera in the sixth.

The Marlins scored one run in the eighth on a bases-loaded double play from Juan Encarnación off of Dave Veres as the Cubs' 12−3 blowout win tied the series heading to Florida.

With two outs and Lowell at third, Iván Rodríguez singled through the right side to give Florida the lead and knocked Wood from the game, but the next inning, Randall Simon followed up a Tom Goodwin triple with a home run into the right-field stands off reliever Chad Fox.

The Marlins tied the game at 4–4 in the bottom of the eighth against Kyle Farnsworth when Todd Hollandsworth grounded a hit through the left side of the infield to score Cabrera.

Then the sparingly used Doug Glanville turned out to be the hero when he smoked a triple into the left-center field gap to drive in Lofton with the go-ahead run.

Saturday, October 11, 2003 at Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida Aramis Ramírez hit a first inning grand-slam, the first in Cubs postseason history, after Dontrelle Willis allowed three walks.

Next inning, Kenny Lofton drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Moisés Alou's two-out single.

Sunday, October 12, 2003 at Pro Player Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida With the Marlins facing elimination, Josh Beckett kept them alive by dominating the Cubs, holding them to just two hits and one walk as part of his standout 2003 postseason.

[20] Tuesday, October 14, 2003 at Wrigley Field in Chicago In Game 6, the Cubs struck first when Kenny Lofton singled to lead off the first off of Carl Pavano and scored on Sammy Sosa's one-out double.

With thousands of fans on the street outside sold-out Wrigley Field, poised to celebrate, the Cubs held a 3–0 lead going into the top of the eighth inning of Game 6.

After Mike Mordecai hit a high pop fly to left field, the team was a mere five outs away from their first World Series appearance since 1945.

Cubs left fielder Moisés Alou (a former Marlin who had won a world championship with the club in 1997) headed toward the stands to catch the ball for the potential second out.

Gonzalez, who led all NL shortstops in fielding percentage, closed his glove too early and the ball landed in the dirt, allowing Cabrera to reach safely, loading the bases.

Jeff Conine then hit a sacrifice fly to right field for the second out of the inning, allowing Cabrera to score from third and the other runners to each advance one base.

[27] The Cubs responded by tying the score 3–3 in the second inning off of Mark Redman, which featured a two-run home run by Wood after Damian Miller hit into an RBI groundout with runners on second and third.

[28] In the fifth, Florida capitalized on a pair of walks and scored three runs on Rodriguez's double, Cabrera's groundout and Derrek Lee's single to go on top 6–5, a lead they would not relinquish.

They added a run in the sixth on Luis Castillo's single with two on off of Kyle Farnsworth and two more in the seventh on Alex Gonzalez's double with two on off of Dave Veres to expand their lead to 9–5.

Bartman's name, as well as personal information about him, appeared on Major League Baseball's online message boards minutes after the game ended.

Many thought his addition, to go along with young starting pitchers Mark Prior, Kerry Wood, and Carlos Zambrano, would help resemble the Maddux-led Braves' rotations in the 1990s.

The Cubs faltered down the stretch and were eventually overtaken in the division and the wild card standings by a surging Houston Astros team in late September.

Lee put up MVP-type numbers in 2005, finishing third that year in the award,[35] while leading the National League batting average and slugging.

He also won the gold glove and silver slugger awards at first base, being the only Cubs first baseman to accomplish this feat until Anthony Rizzo did it in 2016.

Wood suffered similar arm issues and would have to move to the bullpen in 2008, where he would find some success as the Cubs closer and later Yankees set-up reliever to Mariano Rivera.