CHICAGO -- Lou Piniella likes to remind giddy Cubs fans that this is the last week of August, not September, and there are still games to be played. Saturday was a reality check.

Jayson Werth hit two solo homers and a two-run tiebreaking single and Ryan Howard belted his Major League-leading 37th home run to power the Phillies to a 5-2 victory, snapping the Cubs' winning streak at seven games.

"We just didn't hit with men on base -- that's the storyline of that game," said Piniella, the Cubs' manager. "You can't do it every day."

Chicago was vying for its 86th win, which would have topped last year's victory total, and also had a chance at its 40th come-from-behind win. With two on in the eighth against Brett Myers (8-10), Aramis Ramirez picked up his 100th RBI of the season with a single. Myers was pulled, and J.C. Romero struck out the next two, then walked Kosuke Fukudome to load the bases for Geovany Soto, who hit an RBI single in the second. But Romero struck him out and thumped his chest in a celebratory strut.

"I had a huge at-bat there in the eighth inning and didn't come through," Soto said. "It's the ups and downs of the game. We've been playing good baseball, and give credit to them. They played almost perfect baseball. They came out and played hard. We're a tough team to beat and they beat us fair and square -- give credit to them."

What about Romero's behavior?

"I take pride in that -- it means I'm a big hitter," Soto said. "It's part of the game. Sometimes you hit a big homer and you kind of stand there and look and enjoy the success at that moment. I think it was a big strikeout for him to strike me out. I didn't swing at that pitch, and it was a pretty good pitch, and he struck me out, so I tip my hat."

There was no late-inning hero this time for the Cubs.

"There's no doubt we expect something to happen, and we'll continue to put pressure on the opposing club," Ted Lilly said. "Guys in our locker room feel we're never out of it, and we've shown that on a number of occasions."

They had chances, stranding nine. Alfonso Soriano, who hit a tiebreaking homer on Friday, went 0-for-5, flew out to end the second with two on and two out, and grounded out to end the fourth with two on and two outs again.

"We just squandered too many opportunities," Piniella said.

Lilly (13-8) took the loss, only his second in his past nine starts. The left-hander struck out five, and gave up three runs on six hits over 6 2/3 innings. He also was called out on a weird play in the fourth. Lilly bunted and appeared to avoid being tagged by Howard. He was initially called safe by home-plate umpire Chris Guccione, but first-base ump Tim Welke conferred with Guccione and overruled, saying Howard did tag Lilly.

"The home-plate umpire said he wasn't tagged, the first-base umpire said he was tagged in the hip," Piniella said. "One of them was right and one of them was wrong."

"I did not feel him tag me," Lilly said. "I went and looked on tape and didn't see him tag me. I didn't see what he saw."

Lilly did try to take the umpire's point of view in the sixth. The game was tied at 1 at that point, and the Phillies had runners at first and third. Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch, although Lilly felt Victorino had taken one for the team. Werth, who hit his first homer of the game in the fifth, then drove in a pair with a single to right.

"I had several opportunities to get out of that inning," Lilly said. "I had two strikes on a couple guys and two guys reached base on hits, and Victorino I thought kind of leaned out over the plate on a ball that might have been over the plate. That's his game. He's a rally starter, and unfortunately that works sometimes."

Lilly did say something to Guccione about it.

"I tried to put myself in the umpire's shoes for a second, and that's the last thing you expect is for a guy to lean out over the plate and a guy to get hit by a pitch," Lilly said. "[Guccione] didn't see it that way. I had a different angle, the opposite angle he had. Bottom line, even after that, I still had the opportunity to get out of that inning. I felt like if I could keep it right there, our offense is going to continue to put pressure on them."

Howard connected off Neal Cotts in the eighth, launching the ball to straightaway center, and Werth notched his 20th homer one out later.

Myers struck out eight over seven-plus innings. He retired 11 in a row before Ryan Theriot singled to lead off the eighth.

"When [Myers] had to make pitches to get out of an inning, he did," Piniella said. "We hit a few balls hard but right at people. It's going to happen."

No one expected the Cubs to go 27-0 the rest of the season.

"Remember, we're still trying to win baseball games," Piniella said. "All we've done to date is get ourselves in position to go to the playoffs -- nothing more, nothing less."