It's a race against other playoff contenders, sure, because the standings tell you the Marlins are chasing down the wild card leaders and even catching up to the division-leading Phillies.

But it almost feels more like an internal race for these Marlins. A race to find out whether the questionable pitching at the back end of the rotation will eventually catch up to what has been an impressive offensive display for the second half of the season.

If it does, then the Fish can't honestly consider themselves a player in this playoff chase for much longer. If it doesn't, then consider this Marlins team one of the more unique in baseball, winning consistently with a formula that doesn't normally translate to winning.

For weeks now, the Marlins have been crawling up the charts in baseball's offensive categories. It goes deeper than the 13 straight games with 10-plus hits. Longer than Nick Johnson has been on the team. Greater than just Hanley Ramirez running away with the National League batting title.

At some point, the Marlins team that struck out too often and failed to put together quality at-bats in run-scoring opportunities figured out that it's not impossible to turn things around midseason.

In the 30-day span entering Sunday's doubleheader with the Rockies, the Marlins had the second-best batting average in baseball, behind only the Angels. In that same time frame -- which is more than a decent sample size -- they have the best on-base percentage in the game.

It's what has catapulted the team into a playoff race that would've been considered unfathomable as late as mid-June.

During that same period, though, the pitching hasn't improved. The team was ninth in the NL in ERA during that span. It's ninth in the NL for the season.

In a sport where it's almost a consensus that high-quality pitching is what makes a winning team, does that make the Marlins a short-term contender on a hot streak, or a team that can buck the trend and swing their way to a playoff appearance?

The trouble for the Marlins comes when anyone other than Josh Johnson, Ricky Nolasco or Chris Volstad starts a game. Since the All-Star break, the team is 13-5 in games any of those three started and just 4-6 in the others -- and that's in large part because the bats have been doing much of the heavy lifting.

There aren't any other teams in serious NL playoff contention that have this many questions at the back of their rotation. How long can Sean West and Rick VandenHurk hold up? Anibal Sanchez wasn't great when he was healthy this year, so how much does it really mean that he's close to returning? Will Andrew Miller ever recover from his high ankle sprain?

But somehow, the bigger the question marks, the better the Marlins have been. Because, along with the occasional gem from Johnson and Nolasco, the Fish have used their bats to distract us from what should be considered a serious concern.

Fredi Gonzalez isn't convinced an offensive streak alone can lift the team through another month and a half.

``You don't win with offense,'' the manager said. ``You win with pitching, in the long run. This isn't a slow-pitch softball league.''

His team has been winning, though. Can it be a fluke if the Marlins are this deep into the season and sitting in the thick of things?

Gonzalez won't argue if it does -- even if it flies in the face of his theory on winning.

``Hey, we'll take it,'' Gonzalez said. ``You don't matchup ERAs to determine who gets into the playoffs.''