MIAMI -- Precisely one month remains in this baseball season, and the Mets are in only a slightly better position than they were at April's dawn. Not that it's a bad place to be -- playoff favorites can't quite complain -- but the Mets' current state has only underscored their previous five months of frustration and satisfaction.

It's a strange hybrid of emotions, but an accurate one. The Mets beat the Marlins on Sunday, 6-2, giving them a so-called bounce-back victory from the previous night's loss. It was their second such win this week, and one of unfathomably many this season. When the Mets lose, they generally rebound with a win.

"That's the sign of a good team," manager Jerry Manuel said.

Sort of. Because to bounce back from a loss, a team first has to lose. And the Mets have lost more often than any playoff contender rightfully should.

"I guess it's a good thing and a bad thing," third baseman David Wright said. "We haven't been streaky all that much either way, good or bad."

Nothing changed all week long, nor on Sunday, when the Mets ensured that their losing streak would stop at one. Pedro Martinez's pitching provided the foundation, and a few well-timed homers created an opportunity.

The Mets seized it, winning this three-game series and retaining control of first place in the National League East.

"Like we said all along," Wright said, "two out of three."

Manuel has credited every success his Mets have had this season to starting pitching, and Sunday's victory was no different. Despite velocity that sat in the low-80s all afternoon, despite concerns over whether or not Hurricane Gustav would disrupt his start and despite a pitch count that climbed high enough to end his outing after six innings, Martinez survived against a powerful offensive threat.

"Nothing special," was how he described his outing. "It was just a quality outing where I had to battle a lot. I was a little sluggish today and didn't feel quite upbeat. But I managed to use my experience and make some pitches, and we ended up winning the game."

The only runs Martinez allowed came in the first inning -- a time when the Mets, and not their opponents, are usually the ones to score. The first two batters to face the future Hall of Famer, in fact, were the only two to cross the plate. Then, in subsequent innings, Martinez pitched in and out of jams, before eventually stopping the Marlins from reaching base altogether.

It was, as he said, nothing special. But it was still something significant.

"Pedro was Pedro," Manuel said. "He didn't have his greatest stuff, but he pitched magnificently. I mean, that was a magnificent outing."

Offense came when Carlos Beltran homered in the second inning, then when Nick Evans and Wright hit back-to-back solo home runs in the third. For Evans, it was his first career roundtripper in his 90th at-bat since joining the team.

The Mets sent a worker out to retrieve the ball from behind Dolphin Stadium's left-field scoreboard, where Evans had deposited his homer. But before anyone could arrive at the spot, Wright launched his own home run in roughly the same area, meaning that Evans wasn't even entirely sure the ball he tucked into his suitcase later that day -- affixed with a label detailing its significance -- was actually the same ball he had hit.

"I got a ball with a mark on it," Evans said. "That's all that matters."

And six innings in, he had put the Mets in a position to win. It marked the third time they had been in such a situation this weekend, and the second time they won.

Five relievers paraded on and off the mound Sunday, some of them pitching into trouble, others gathering the necessary outs. Despite Manuel's desire to keep the ailing Luis Ayala idle, there stood Ayala, warming up in the ninth. And despite Manuel's preference to prevent Brian Stokes from throwing for the fifth time in six games, there was Stokes, on the mound to finish the game.

The Marlins put two runners on, before Jorge Cantu hit a sharp line drive to Jose Reyes at shortstop to end things.

An imperfect finish to an imperfect game and an imperfect month.

Even considering their three straight losses in Houston to open August, and the fact that they had to survive without one of their most critical players, closer Billy Wagner, the Mets did just that -- survive. They completed August with an 18-11 record, moving from third place to first in the process. And although the Mets remain flawed, they stand in better shape than every other team in their division.

"You couldn't ask for a more exciting team and situation to be put in," said Evans, who wasn't with the Mets last September.

Still, Evans knows what happened. Every Met does. And now that August has disappeared, this team does not want to experience such a September again.