It may be too little too late, but there is still good reason to cross your fingers and hope the Marlins make the playoffs. Wednesday night the Marlins hammered the Houston Astros 14-2 to win their 7th straight game and remain in the playoff chase.

Again tonight the Marlins didn’t wait long to jump all over the Astros. Hanley Ramirez hit the first of his two homeruns on the night to lead off the game in the bottom of the 1st inning. The Marlins would proceed to tack on 3 more runs in the 1st and eventually cruise to victory. Ramirez hit his second homerun in the bottom of the 2nd inning increasing his tally for the season to 32. Jorge Cantu crushed his 28th homerun of the season in the Marlins 5 run 8th inning to finish off the Astros.

Ricky Nolasco was again dominant going 7 innings giving up 5H, 2ER, and striking out 4. Nolasco improved his record on the season to 15-7. Unfortunately tonights effort didn’t do any more than keep the Fish in the midst of the race. The New York Mets (leading the NL Wild Card by 1 game over the Milwaukee Brewers) won a slugfest with the Washington Nationals to retain possession of the Wild Card lead. Philadelphia cruised in their game, retaining their lead in the NL East. The Milwaukee Brewers also won to remain 1 game behind the Mets for the Wild Card. The Marlins did move a game closer to the Astros in the Wild Card standings and can leap frog them with a win tomorrow.

The window of opportunity is not closed yet. The Marlins are 5 1/2 games out of 1st place in the NL East, but welcome NL East leading Philadelphia to Miami this weekend for 3 games and will have an opportunity to chip away at their lead. If all else fails and the Marlins are to settle for the Wild Card, that window will remain open longer. All 3 teams in front of Florida in the standings are slumping badly. Milwaukee won for just the 4th time this month tonight, Houston is struggling, and the Mets are losing steam. The Marlins finish the season in New York against the Mets for 3.

The Marlins picked a good time to get hot, but not the best. With 11 games left, time is quickly running out and the Fish have left themselves with little margin for error. Nonetheless, keep the faith, stranger things have happened!