With their season and playoff hopes on the line, the New York Mets welcomed the Florida Marlins to Shea Stadium for a final 3 game series in the 2008 season. Last season it was the Marlins who finished off the Mets September collapse and knocked them from the playoffs. Well the Fish are back and hungry for more!

Friday night the Marlins went to Shea to face the Mets and Mike “The Mouth” Pelfrey. Pelfrey may wish he’d never talked smack about the Marlins back in August as it came back to bite him and his teammates in the ass tonight. Pelfrey lost for the 4th time this season against the Marlins, he is 0-4 in 5 starts this season against Florida.

The Marlins didn’t wait long to get after Pelfrey, they had a run in before Pelfrey had thrown his 5th pitch. Hanley Ramirez led off with a single, stole 2nd, and scored 2 pitches later on a John Baker single. Marlins’ rookie Chris Volstad went 6 strong innings allowing 5H, 1R(0ER), and striking out 4.

The loss dropped the Mets 2 games behind the Phillies in the NL East and 1 game behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL Wild Card. The Mets found themselves blowing a large division lead last year to miss the playoffs. This year the Mets are in the midst of a similar swoon and the Marlins again enter the fray with 3 games left to go, 3 games in New York, and the Marlins are not shying away from having the stated goal of keeping the Mets out of the playoffs. Last week manager Fredi Gonzalez said that even though the Marlins are out of the playoff picture, he will not rest any starters in the final series of the season.

I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed, like most of America probably, in hopes that the Marlins can again spoil the party for the overrated Mets. A spot in October should be reserved for teams with the fortitude and determination to overcome adversity. The Mets lack most if not all of the qualities of a playoff team, they quit on their manager Willie Randolph (who wasn’t the one on the field underachieving), and they whined that they weren’t to blame. Here’s hoping the Marlins can crash the party again and keep the Mets out of the playoffs.