(Best E Casino) - Oliver Perez gets a shot at trying to pitch the New York Mets into the postseason today, when he takes the ball versus the pesky Florida Marlins in the finale of a three-game series at Shea Stadium.

The Mets are currently tied with Milwaukee atop the National League Wild Card standings and will host a one-game playoff on Monday if both ballclubs remain knotted after this weekend.

New York won for the second time in three games and moved into a tie with Milwaukee after Saturday's 2-0 victory over Florida behind a complete-game effort from NL Cy Young Award candidate Johan Santana. Santana gave up three hits and three walks while striking out nine batters for his 16th win.

Carlos Delgado and Ramon Martinez both knocked in a run for the Mets, who can thank the Chicago Cubs for defeating the Brewers later in the day to shake up the playoff picture.

New York, which blew a seven-game lead in the NL East with 17 games left on the regular-season schedule in 2007, is in the same situation as last season when the Marlins took two of three games in the final series of the campaign to dash its postseason aspirations.

The Mets are playing their final regular-season series at Shea Stadium and will open brand new Citi Field in 2009. They are trying desperately to get some more home games in with a playoff berth and hope Perez can deliver on short rest Sunday. Perez has recorded four straight no-decisions and is 3-0 over the past 10 trips to the mound. In his last outing on Wednesday versus the Cubs, Perez was reached for five runs in 4 1/3 innings of a 9-6 loss.

The lefty, who is 4-2 at Shea this season, is 3-0 in five starts against the Marlins this season and 6-3 with a 4.04 ERA in 15 lifetime matchups with Florida.

Florida had a brief two-game winning streak stopped on Saturday as starting pitcher Ricky Nolasco was the hard-luck loser, allowing two runs and five hits in seven frames. He recorded 10 K's and issued only one walk in the effort. Jorge Cantu, Josh Willingham and Cody Ross posted the hits for Florida.

Toeing the rubber for the Fish today will be Scott Olsen, who is 8-11 with a 4.23 earned run average in 32 starts this season. Olsen had a personal two- game winning streak stopped the previous time out on September 23 at Washington after yielding four runs -- three earned -- in five innings of his team's 9-4 loss. Olsen fell to 2-7 in his past nine decisions with the loss. The left-hander is 0-3 in four starts against the Mets this season and 1-5 with a 4.89 ERA in 12 lifetime meetings with New York.

New York has won five of the last eight meetings with Florida and leads the season series by a 10-7 count, including a 5-3 mark at Shea.