How ’bout them Fish?! Friday night the Marlins extended their hot streak, defeating the NL East leading Philadelphia Phillies in a wild one 14-8. The win ties a Marlins franchise record, set in 2006, of 9 consecutive victories. The team’s run of good form lately has made them a playoff contender again and is forcing the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies to exert their full energy to the last day in order to secure themselves a spot in the playoffs.

The Fish again jumped on a starting pitcher early and inevitably chased him from the game. Tonight the Fish chased Phillies’ starter Brett Myers in the 5th inning with no one out, Myers had given up 10ER by that point. The Marlins fell behind in the 1st inning 2-0 but quickly erased the deficit and jumped ahead 5-2. The Marlins remained in front until the 5th inning when the Phillies scored 2 runs to go ahead 6-5, but the lead didn’t last. Florida put up 6 runs in the bottom of the 5th to go ahead for good.

Rookie Cameron Maybin was on fire again tonight going 4-5, scoring 3 runs and stealing 2 bases. Maybin tied a franchise record by reaching base in 10 consecutive plate appearances. Josh Johnson got the win despite going 5 innings and giving up 7H and 5ER while striking out 7. Johnson improved his record to 6-1. Jorge Cantu went 3-5 with 2RBIs and knocked his 29th homerun of the season tonight. One more for Cantu, and all 4 of the Marlins infielders will have 30 or more homeruns apiece.

Florida improved its record to 81-72 and altered the playoff picture in the National League. The New York Mets, with their victory over the Atlanta Braves, move back into 1st in the NL East, and the Phillies go back to leading the Wild Card race. Florida is now 5 games back of 1st in the NL East and 4 1/2 games back of the Wild Card.

While I keep my fingers crossed that the magic can continue for the Marlins, they do have a hill left to climb. They left themselves with precious little time to make this playoff run and perfection is the name of the game if they hope to make it to October. Stranger things have happened, the Phillies erased a 7 game deficit last year to take the NL East crown from the Mets. Even stranger, the Colorado Rockies finished last season winning 14 of 15 games (including a Wild Card tie breaker) to make the playoffs where they swept through the Divisional and Championship rounds to make the World Series. Stranger things have indeed happened, maybe this Marlins squad can be the next to make a memorable run.