Monday’s day off didn’t slow down the Florida Marlins one bit. The Marlins had Monday off to await the Houston Astros arrival in Miami for a 3 game series. The Astros were finishing up a 2 game series with the Chicago Cubs in Milwaukee on Monday, giving the Marlins a day off. Apparently the Marlins weren’t in need of the time off, they came out firing Tuesday night and downed the Astros 5-1.

The Marlins were up against Houston’s red hot ace Roy Oswalt who brought a franchise record 32 1/3 scoreless inning streak into Miami, and the Marlins didn’t wait long to ruin his fun. Jorge Cantu hammered a 3R-HR in the bottom of the 1st inning putting the Marlins up 3-0, it was Cantu’s 27th HR. Later in the inning Cody Ross knocked a double to deep center scoring Dan Uggla and putting the Fish up 4-0. In the 2nd inning Mike Jacobs hit a double to deep center scoring Hanley Ramirez and putting the FIsh up 5-0, providing all the runs Chris Volstad would need.

Rookie Chris Volstad, facing Houston for the first time in his career, didn’t need the 5 runs but used them anyway. Volstad went 8 solid innings allowing 4H and 1ER while striking out 4. The 5-1 victory ran the Marlins winning streak to 6 games and has helped put them back into the playoff picture, if only on the fringe. The Marlins have improved their record to 78-72 and now sit 5 games off the pace in both the NL East and NL Wild Card races.

It is not insane to still consider the Marlins a contender for the playoffs. The New York Mets lost tonight for the 3rd straight time, and 2nd in a row against the Washington Nationals. One can’t help but wonder if they are headed for another September collapse. Philadelphia is playing better, but are still beatable. Either way, they don’t have to overcome both teams to make the playoffs. The Marlins need only surpass Houston and the Milwaukee Brewers outside their division and the Mets within, to earn the Wild Card. Two games remain against the Astros and Milwaukee, who just fired their Manager Ned Yost, are spiraling out of control losing 11 of their last 14 games. The season is far from finished and the Fish appear to still have some fight in them.