The two hottest teams in major league baseball square off tonight in Miami, when the NL East leading Phillies visit the red-hot Marlins for the first of three games.

The Phillies have won 7 straight games, their longest streak of the season. The host Marlins, meanwhile, have won 8 straight. So something has to give.

The Marlins trail the Phillies by 5 1/2 games, with 10 games left. (The Phils have just 9). So the Marlins know they need to sweep the Phils to have any realistic shot at the post-season.

The Phillies lead the Mets by 1/2 game, and are two games ahead of Milwaukee in the Wild Card chase. They need to take care of business and not let the Marlins get into the playoff race. Having to deal with the Mets and Brewers is enough.

The Mets are in Atlanta this weekend to meet the Braves, who were just swept by the Phillies. The Brewers visit Cincinnati.

Barring a 3-game sweep of the New York Mets this weekend, the Phillies shot at the post-season is over.

Losing 2 of 3 games to the Washington Nationals, the worst team in the league, while the Mets were sweeping the Brewers in Milwaukee, left the Phillies 3 games behind the Mets with just 22 games to play.

The Phillies can't expect the Mets to collapse like they did last year, when they blew a 7 1/2 game lead with 17 games to play.

The bullpen, the Phillies strength for most of the season, has blown several games over the last month. Chad Durbin, above in an Associated Press photo, has been the culprit in many of those losses. Meanwhile, the Mets' bullpen, much maligned and without All-Star closer Billy Wagner, seems to have righted itself.

And every Phillies fan knows how woeful the offense has been since the All-Star Break.

I hope I'm wrong, but unless the Phillies can muster up a sweep this weekend, another baseball season will end in disappointment.

Oh well. At least the Eagles open Sunday. E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!

A poll on ESPN.com asks who will win the National League East.

It could be just the carry over from the Phillies' dramatic 8-7, 13-inning win over the Mets Tuesday night, but of 5,705 votes cast as of 12:15 Wednesday afternoon, 69% think the Phillies will win the division.

The next 10 days will tell a great deal about the fate of the 2008 Phillies.

Four home games against the Dodgers, two more against the division-leading Mets and then four games in Chicago against the Cubs are what lies ahead for the under-achieving squad.

Just last week, the Dodgers swept four games from the Phillies in Los Angeles, so you'd think the hometown team would like to extract a little revenge from the West Coasters.

As I write this, the Phillies trail the Mets by 2 1/2 games, so depending on the outcomes of this weekend's games, the Phils may need to win both games from the Mets just to stay alive in the pennant race.

And the Cubs only have the best record in the league as they vie for their first World Series title since 1908.

So the outlook for the next 10 games isn't promising, especially with the impotent bats of leadoff hitter Jimmy Rollins, shown above in an Associated Press photo, and cleanup hitter Ryan Howard. Rollins is just 3-for-33 since calling fans "frontrunners" on the recent West Coast trip. Howard has three hits in his last 35 at bats, with 18 strikeouts in that span.

Come Labor Day, either the Phillies are still in the race for a playoff spot, or fans can start chanting "E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!"

As the Phillies get ready to open the second half, they sit tied for first place in the National League East with the New York Mets, who just weeks ago were 7 games behind the Phillies, but a current 10-game winning streak has brought them to the top of the division.

The Phillies sit in their current position despite the following negatives:

* Reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins missed a month of the season with an ankle injury, and has been inconsistent at best since his return;

* Cleanup hitter Ryan Hitter spent most of the season at or below the .200 mark and is on pace for more than 200 strikeouts. However, a hot last 30 days has him leading the league in home runs and RBI;

* Opening Day starter Brett Myers struggled for most of the first half, and has spent July in the minor leagues;

* Starting catcher Carlos Ruiz would hit just above .200 with only 20 RBI at the break.

But thanks to a stellar bullpen, good starting pitching from Cole Hamels, Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick and the offensive heroics of Chase Utley and Pat Burrell, above in an Associated Press photo, the Phillies have put themselves in line for the postseason.

In mid-June, the team was 13 games above .500 and seemingly poised to take control of the division. Instead, it went into a tailspin and is in a fight with the Mets and Marlins at the top of the division.

The past few Phillies have shown they are a second-half team, and the players expect the same over the next 2 1/2 months.

But I don't know about this team. Just when you think they're playing good and will go on a roll, they lose 6 out of 7 games. They don't seem to have a long winning streak -- like the Mets are on now -- in them.

At the start of the season, I predicted 86 wins. I'll change that to 90 wins, but I don't think it will be enough to get to the postseason. The Mets will win the division, and the wild card will come out of the National League Central.

I hope I'm wrong.