For his Rumblings and Grumblings segment on ESPN, Jayson Stark runs through the ten burning questions in MLB for the month of September.

For number six, he asks, “Will the Mets-Phillies Saga Have a Different Ending?”

Well, the answer to that is an obvious yes, because as he points out no team in this race will have a 7 1/2 game lead to blow.

Stark does seem to indicate that the Phillies would be his favorites:

But more and more — as well as the Mets have played (40-25 under Jerry Manuel), and as hard as they’ve worked to expunge the nightmare of September 2007 — the Phillies look like the team in better shape to survive this marathon.

Stark cites that the Mets aren’t counting on any production from John Maine and Billy Wagner for the rest of the season. Also, the ability to win the game late seems to heavily favor the Phillies who have a record of 35-11 in games decided after the 6th inning, while the Mets are 11-22.

Personally, I agree that I wouldn’t expect much from Maine and Wagner the rest of the way. Both have tough arm injuries that often need lots of tender, love and care. Perhaps Maine’s greatest value to the team will be out of the bullpen.

The late game stat is largely in part due to the Mets bullpen which has been run down to say the least lately. However, I firmly believe that bullpens are crapshoots with the innings they have to work with, and it will work itself out. The Mets have a surprisingly well built and talented ‘pen with a solid balance of talent from lefties and righties, and in the end I think it will be fine. But then again I’m the only person left alive that still believes in Aaron Heilman, so. . . .