NEW YORK -- The one-run lead the Mets would squander an inning later was in some jeopardy as the baseball left the bat of Miguel Tejada in the sixth inning Sunday afternoon. He had pulled a pitch from Oliver Perez toward the left-field corner with one out and the bases empty. Tejada's line drive had legitimate extra-base aspirations. And the man in charge of denying them was a Mets rookie with more first base than left field on his professional resume, Nick Evans.

Left field at Shea looked like the beach at Mailbu -- sun, sun and more sun -- or left field at Yankee Stadium in October; the kind of sun that prompted Yogi Berra to say, "It gets late early here."

And there was Evans, fighting the sun and his own inexperience. Shea held its breath, and if Evans thought he had the time, he might have done likewise. But he was hurried to an extreme, a line drive was trying to become a double. He had to intercept it.

Turns out he didn't even have time to flip down the sunglasses attached to his cap.

"I don't think I had time," Evans said Monday afternoon as he recalled his ordeal. "I really can't say. I don't remember. All I knew is that I had to catch it."

Even if he couldn't see the ball.

Sun and all, he did make the running catch. It would have been a pretty play on a cloudy day.

Young players don't always come to the big leagues fully equipped. Minor League players in the Mets' system can't wear the Oakley sunglasses that are so popular in the big leagues. So Evans arrived with a pair of flips that he is sure he used in the Minor Leagues, though he doesn't recall exactly when.

When he returned to the dugout following the catch, he received a few "attaboys" and a favor. Brian Schneider loaned him his pair of Oakleys, and when Schneider was inserted in the lineup and needed his glasses, Ryan Church lent a pair to the rookie.

And when it was all over, and Evans was sharing his account of the ordeal with an interested party, Damion Easley overheard it and gave Evans a pair of Oakleys to keep.

Aren't the big leagues wonderful!