(My Sportsbook) - The Florida Marlins are doing their best to shake up the playoff races in the National League, a picture they hope to be a part of at season's end.

Florida, riding a franchise-record winning streak, hopes to make up more ground in the postseason hunt with tonight's second portion of a three-game series with the Philadelphia Phillies at Dolphin Stadium.

The Marlins pounded out a 14-8 win over the Phillies last night to get within 4 1/2 games of the NL Wild Card and five back of first-place New York in the NL East.

Florida has gained ground thanks to a nine-game winning streak that matches the longest in club history, set four previous times.

Cameron Maybin continued his hot hitting since being added to the roster. Playing in only his third game with the Marlins after being acquired from Detroit as part of the offseason Miguel Cabrera-Dontrelle Willis deal, Maybin posted four hits for a second straight night to make him 9-for-11 on the season.

He scored three times and ran his streak of consecutive at-bats with a hit to eight, which tied a franchise record set by Preston Wilson in 2001, before popping out in the eighth inning.

Jorge Cantu, Dan Uggla and Alfredo Amezaga all homered for the Marlins, who played for a second straight game without Hanley Ramirez. The star shortstop injured his shoulder in Wednesday's win over Houston.

Ryan Howard homered -- his major league leading 46th -- and knocked in three runs for Philadelphia, which saw its season-high seven-game win streak come to an end at a bad time. Howard, who is also tops in the majors with 141 RBI, is hitting .371 (23-for-62) with nine homers and 27 RBI in 17 September games.

The setback dropped the Phillies out of first place in the NL East, a half- game behind the Mets. Philadelphia now leads the wild-card race by two games over Milwaukee.

Joe Blanton will try to get the Phillies back in the win column tonight.

The right-hander is 2-0 with a 4.53 earned run average in 11 starts since joining the Phillies, and got a no-decision versus Milwaukee on Sunday. Blanton allowed three runs on five hits over seven frames, marking the first time he pitched at least seven innings since August 8.

Blanton had posted a 5.58 ERA in his previous six outings while not making it past the sixth inning in any of them.

The 27-year-old faced the Marlins for the first time in his career on September 8 and got a win, despite allowing four runs on five hits over just five innings of work.

The Marlins counter with Anibal Sanchez, who is 0-2 with an 8.22 ERA in his last five starts.

That includes a test versus the Phils and Blanton on September 8, a game that saw Sanchez depart after just 1 2/3 innings after allowing five runs on five hits. He had thrown just three innings against the Braves in his previous outing on September 2.

The 24-year-old right-hander was much better last time out, however. Sanchez got a no-decision against Washington on Sunday, yielding three runs (2 earned) on four hits and three walks over seven frames.

Sanchez is 2-4 with a 5.87 ERA in nine starts this year and 0-3 with a 10.69 ERA in four career tests versus the Phillies.

The Marlins have won seven of their last nine versus the Phillies and lead the season series, 10-6.