Those eyes were still burning a bit about 20 minutes after he closed out the Mets' 6-3 win over the Phillies last night at Shea Stadium, likely because his character had been questioned in a New York Times opinion piece yesterday.

Basically, the story said the Yankees' Mariano Rivera would have sucked it up and pitched the ninth inning of Tuesday's first game of this important three-game series. Wagner, as Mets fans painfully remember, had back spasms and couldn't pitch Tuesday, when the Mets squandered a three-run ninth-inning lead and lost, 8-6, as Wagner's bullpen teammates self-destructed.

A doctor advised Wagner to give his shoulder another day of rest to let the spasms quiet down. An MRI earlier in the week apparently had shown no damage.

"If I can pitch, I'll pitch," Wagner said. "The doctor said he wanted me to take another day and, you know, against popular belief, you know. If I go out there and strain it worse, I'm not going to miss a day. I'm going to miss a week.

"Sucking it up is not an option," he said with a tinge of anger. "I've been there, and we've all sucked it up, so, you know, within reason."

As they did Tuesday night, the Mets, who pulled even with the Phils for first place in the National League East, took a three-run lead into the ninth inning. Wagner went in, and it was three up, three down. He beat Shane Victorino to the bag on a close play at first base, then got Eric Bruntlett and Carlos Ruiz to end the game. One of the lefthander's fastballs sizzled at 97 m.p.h.

"Beat him to the bag by about a step and a half," Wagner said of Victorino. "Hey, I'm 37, and he is about 25."

Wagner, who attributed his soreness to his age, said he was not certain whether he would be able to pitch in today's final game of the series.

"I think it's something I'll find out about tomorrow when the adrenaline subsides a bit," he said. "If I wake up and feel all right, I will. Honestly, the training crew should get a lot of credit. I had heat, ice, heat, ice, manual rubs. They were fantastic. They deserve a lot of credit just to get me out there."

Mets manager Jerry Manuel got the good news that Wagner would be available shortly before the start of the game. The news was especially welcome because Manuel's team had been stung so hard by the nature of Tuesday's defeat.

"You need a guy to finish the ball game," Manuel said. "We need those last three outs."

In the series opener, Manuel didn't bother to ask Johan Santana whether he still had enough fuel to complete the gem he pitched against the Phillies.

Instead, he relied on body language and Santana's history.

Before last night's game, his decision to lift the $18 million-a-year lefthander, who pitched eight strong innings, was still a hot topic.

Manuel's decision was magnified because Wagner was not available.

"When a pitcher is accustomed to so many pitches and then he gets the last out of an inning, and you watch him come off, you can almost sense by his reaction how he feels," Manuel said. "It's like, 'OK, I've done my job.' Now, if you go back and say, 'Hey I'm going to send you back out,' you're probably not going to get the same guy."

Manuel said the telling sign was when he watched an exchange between Santana and catcher Ramon Castro after Santana got the third out of the eighth inning.

"I think he gave Castro a little, you know, 'Good job,' that sort of thing," Manuel said. "He felt and I felt that that was enough. I felt that he felt that. Maybe he wouldn't say that, but . . ."

Last night, Wagner helped spare his manager another disastrous ninth inning.