Phillies 6, Mets 2: Well, at least watching the Mets lose to Philadelphia during the final six weeks of the season is a littleless painful this year with the team barely having any healthy legs to stand up on, let alone collapse onto. Ryan Howard smacked a three-run home run to left in the top of the first off of Bobby Parnell and the Phillies would never look back in this afternoon's finale of the four-game series at Citi Field. Today's loss puts the Mets 16 1/2 games behind the World Series champs and somehow the news just keeps getting worse. Johan Santana has been scratched from tomorrow's start in Florida with a sore elbow and might be shut down for the season. Billy Wagner made his second appearance today since returning from Tommy John surgery, pitching a scoreless 8th for the Mets. Word is that complications have arisen with the Red Sox' attempt to bring him to Boston off waivers—Wagner wants the Red Sox to agree that they will not pick up his option for next year nor offer him arbitration, leaving him the possibility to sign somewhere where he could end his career as a closer.