Not even that reminder worked.

Marcus Giles hit a two-run double to back Horacio Ramirez and lead the Atlanta Braves to a 2-1 victory Saturday over the Cubs, who lost their fifth in a row and fell to 5-20 this month.

"What's frustrating is we score five, they score six. We score one, they score two," Cubs infielder Todd Walker said. "We're not very good right now. That being said, you have to have a little magic; you have to have a little luck."

And you have to come through with clutch hits. The Cubs were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position on Saturday, and were batting .144 (30-for-208) in those instances over the last 27 games.

"I was a victim of it today -- you get ahead in the count, you get in an offensive count and you swing at a bad pitch," Cubs catcher Michael Barrett said. "You can say that's from trying too hard, but for me, it was a lack of concentration. When things are going tough, it's really hard to focus on the right things. It's so easy at this time to focus on the negative. We have to continue to stay positive and pull together as a team at this time."

"We had a lot of hits," Cubs manager Dusty Baker said, "we just didn't get a hit when it counted. That's been the story lately. That was a real good game, a well-played game on both sides. We just didn't come up with that clutch hit. We had a couple opportunities and a couple double plays messed us up."

Ramirez (1-0) messed them up, too. The left-hander, making his second start of the year and first since April 5, gave up one run on seven hits over seven innings. He struck out two and did not walk a better. Ramirez also appeared to be fully recovered from his sore hamstring, showing he's quick enough to run the bases and cover first base.

Rookie Sean Marshall (3-3) took the loss, giving up two runs on seven hits and two walks over six innings. He struck out two.

"He was in trouble every inning, but he got out of trouble; he kept us in the game," Baker said of the left-hander.

"I've been throwing the fastball a little more than I did in my last couple starts, and today I had pretty good success with it and pretty good command with it," Marshall said. "I worked the ball inside, and had pretty good results today. I learned a little bit."

If there's a positive, it's that the Cubs were host to 41,526 fans, the largest home crowd of the season, and the largest at Wrigley Field since 41,677 watched a doubleheader against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 16, 1978.

"I drove in today and there was a line around the corner waiting to get into this place," Walker said. "Any team can say they have the best fans in the world when you're 30-15. But when you're 18-30 and you've got a packed house and you're not hearing a whole lot of booing, they give us the benefit of the doubt and know we're trying as hard as we can, they're truly the best fans in the world."

They didn't have much to cheer about. Juan Pierre led off the first with an infield single for the Cubs, stole second, advanced on a sacrifice and scored on Walker's groundout.

With two out in the Braves' second, Brayan Pena walked and Ramirez singled, his third hit in as many at-bats this season. Giles then doubled into left-center, and Matt Murton short-hopped the relay throw to shortstop Ronny Cedeno, allowing Ramirez to score.

"The thing we're always taught as an outfielder is make sure you keep the ball down to the cutoff man, and in that instance, I threw the ball too low," Murton said.

If the Cubs had won, that play would have been ignored.

"That's the way it is when you're losing," Murton said. "Those things when you're winning, they don't become problems."

It was the second day in which a Cubs relay has been less than perfect. Double plays also hurt. Chicago had runners at first and second with none out in the fourth, but Aramis Ramirez hit into a tough-luck double play and Murton popped out to end the inning.

"[Braves first baseman Brian Jordan] said the ball caught him," Walker said. "He made a great turn."

"That deflates you offensively," Barrett said of the double play.

What's really depressing is the ineptness the Cubs seem to be displaying. They're batting .219 with runners in scoring position this season, and .238 this month.

"Everything's hard to do right now," Walker said. "It's hard to stay positive. It's hard to come to the park some days. When you're losing, part of your job is you have to stay positive and you have to dig as deep as you can and come out with some positive things even through losses like we're having.

"Baseball is a big mental game, and you have to dig deep to find some positive out of each and every day, and that's hard to do."

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.