Nathan Eovaldi began to let himself think about it, if only briefly, as he walked off the field after the third inning Sunday afternoon at Citi Field.
Joey Wendle had just made a diving grab in shallow left field to rob Mets pinch-hitter Kevin Kaczmarski of a bloop single. It’s an essential ingredient in almost every perfect game — the defensive gem that keeps it alive, and it put the Rays pitcher one-third of the way through his bid at history.
“There’s always something like that [that] happens on one of those days,” Eovaldi would say later.