Major League Baseball

Marlins' playoff hopes are a mirage

Published Aug. 18, 2009 5:44 a.m. ET

foxsports

The Florida Marlins are living a lie.

They want to believe they can advance to the postseason.

But the route they have taken is not promising.

The Marlins are building success off their offense, which is fun for the fans, but not realistic for a postseason contender.

It's why they are crossing their fingers that Anibal Sanchez can come off the disabled list in the next week and turn into the pitcher they envisioned when they acquired him from Boston along with Hanley Ramirez in the Josh Beckett-Mike Lowell deal, and then watched him throw the fourth no-hitter in Marlins history.

It's why they are making no secret of their interest in veteran John Smoltz. Manager Fredi Gonzalez, a coach in Atlanta with Smoltz, feels the right-hander could provide the leadership his young rotation is lacking.

Gonzalez, after all, may be enjoying what has happened in the last couple of weeks, but he has been around the game too long to be fooled.

"We're swinging our bats but you don't win with offense," he said. "You win with pitching. This isn't a slow-pitch softball league."

So far, however, the Marlins have been surviving with their bats, recently making a definite move into the pennant races, having won eight of their last 10 games, which allowed them to cut 2½ games off their NL East deficit, and two games off the wild-card differential.

How hot have they been? They have had 10 or more hits in a club-record 13 consecutive games, which is seven games longer than the franchise's previous mark. They are one of only 10 major-league teams since 1900 to have a streak that long. Cleveland set the record with an 18-game streak back in 1925.