The Reds saw the end of their winning streak as well as their reign in first place on Friday when several team miscues led to a 6-5 loss at the hands of the Cubs.

The first mistake was sending Elizardo Ramirez, the unluckiest man in the rotation—not to be confused with the unluckiest man in the lineup, Brandon Phillips, up against Greg Maddux. The Lizard allowed three runs (earned) on six hits and a walk through six innings pitched for the loss. He outlasted Mad Dog, who was pulled after five and a third, but ended up kibble nevertheless.

Yeah, that was horrible. Sorry.

Chris Hammond, he who had previously been doing so well, allowed three runs (earned) on four hits in the seventh. Rick White pitched a scoreless eighth, while Kent Mercker and Esteban Yan combined to pitch a scoreless ninth.

Adam Dunn and Scott Hatteberg each hit solo shots. Felipe Lopez, Javier Valentín, and Ryan Freel provided the other RBI.

The two official errors of the game both belong to Valentín, who was looking downright rusty behind the plate on Friday. In the fifth inning, Juan Pierre reached on his fielding error. Two batters later when Pierre was stealing second, Javy threw the ball straight into center field and allowed him to advance to third.

By the grace of the suckitude of the Cubs, they didn't score off that display. And it does seem to have been practice for Javy to throw out Cedeño in the sixth inning, so I guess no real harm there. But it still smarts like hell.

And that's not even counting stranding Ray Olmedo on third, Lopez failing to turn the double play, or Austin Kearns losing the ball and pulling his hamstring while falling on his ass trying to catch it. But I'm already tired of talking about it.

The loss brought the Reds' record to 36-25. They would continue the humiliating losses against the Cubs on Saturday, sending Brandon Claussen out to face Carlos Zambrano.