Sunday morning was just stirring to life when the Marlins found themselves greeted by an ominous development.

Ace Josh Johnson arrived for his scheduled start visibly weakened by a high fever and was sent back home by midmorning, the latest victim of a flu bug that appears to have grabbed a toehold in the Marlins' clubhouse.

It turned out to be the beginning of a luckless day.

Also weakened of any sort of timely offensive punch, the Marlins were shut out 4-0 by the Mets' Pat Misch in a home finale that knocked them out of the NL East race and left their wild-card hopes hanging by a precarious thread.

``They came out ready to play and we didn't,'' said Dan Uggla, who left six men stranded by making the third out of three separate innings.

``We played as hard as we could, but it just wasn't there for us. I left a bunch of people on base. Misch made some good pitches when he needed to and got out of some jams. That's the difference.''

The Marlins stranded eight men on base in the first five innings before their bats went completely silent. Misch (2-4) retired his final 13 batters to end a personal three-game losing streak that almost knocked him out of the Mets' rotation.

Replacement starter Chris Volstad (9-13) went four innings in Johnson's stead, giving up a second-inning run and Jeff Francoeur's two-run homer in the third.

``I felt like I threw well,'' said Volstad, who was lifted for pinch-hitter Brett Hayes with two on and one out in the bottom of the fourth. ``I felt like I had a couple more innings in me, but we had a chance to get back into it. We had to throw a hitter out there.''

Hayes, by the way, grounded into an inning-ending double play.

WILD-CARD HOPE

Combined with Philadelphia's 6-5 victory at Milwaukee, Sunday's outcome left the Marlins 7 ½ games behind the Phillies with just six to play. Their remaining hope is the wild-card race, where Florida fell to five games behind Colorado after the Rockies beat St. Louis.

Even if the Marlins were to sweep this week's final road trip to Atlanta and Philadelphia, two Colorado wins would be enough to knock them out.

``We're still in the wild-card hunt,'' manager Fredi Gonzalez said, still holding a glimmer of optimism. ``We've got to go into Atlanta and play like we're capable and get some wins.''

Gonzalez's day took a hit not long after he got to Land Shark Stadium when Johnson (15-5) walked into the clubhouse running what the manager called ``a pretty good fever.''

``You know him. You ask him [how he feels] -- `I'm good, I'm good.' '' Gonzalez said of his ace. ``I gave him an hour, and he wasn't looking good.''

JOHNSON'S STATUS

Barring a quick recovery that would let him pitch Tuesday, Johnson probably is left with just one more start in the regular season.

``If he can start Tuesday, he could start again [next] Sunday,'' Gonzalez said. ``But he didn't look very good.''

Nor did the Marlins' offense in the first inning, when they put runners on second and third with nobody out and yet came away empty.

Chris Coghlan led off with a single and went to third on Cameron Maybin's double. But the heart of the order couldn't send a ball out of the infield -- Hanley Ramirez popped up, Jorge Cantu grounded out on a shot to third that froze the runners and Uggla popped up.

``Having Hanley and Jorgie there, you can usually chalk that up to getting at least a run,'' Coghlan said. ``It was just one of those fluke things.''

Gonzalez said: ``We get a couple of runs there, it might be a different story.''

The Marlins wound up going 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position, as the Mets were aided by three double plays. Francoeur also robbed Coghlan of a home run, pulling one back over the right-field fence in the seventh.

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