TIME has been hanging heavy on the Mets’ hands waiting for Moises Alou, biding Endy Chavez. And at first it looked as if Carlos Gomez didn’t know whether to wind his watch or cry.

“Two weeks ago I feel a little confused at the plate,” Gomez said. As emergency Plan D behind Chavez, Lastings Milledge, even Ben Johnson – a 21-year old coming off a .281 season in Double-A in 2006 – he arrived at the plate with not much more than a Plan A: Bunting was just about his only shot at getting on.

“When I’m struggling, I know I can run,” said the emergency left fielder, and right fielder, too, when Shawn Green also was injured. But yesterday, emergency was reflected only in Oakland first baseman Nick Swisher’s eyes when he fielded Gomez’s sixth-inning topper and realized his dive for the bag was going to come up a foot short.

By the time Swisher crawled his glove to the base, Gomez’s foot was down for his third hit of the game, two of which traveled fewer than 60 feet.

“He’s the fastest I’ve ever seen to first for a right-handed batter,” said Omar Minaya. That must mean even speedier than Jose Reyes, who batting off lefty Joe Kennedy yesterday, turned a first-inning bloop and a bad throw to second by Jack Cust into a round-the-bases tour de force.

Faster than Reyes? Ha! Yet, after speed, among other things, killed the A’s, 10-2, Willie Randolph also raced to marvel at Gomez’s burners.

“Ron Leflore probably was the fastest I’ve seen from the right side,” said the manager. “But there’s no doubt [Gomez] is in that group.

“He just explodes up the line. And he doesn’t know how to run properly. Right now he’s wild and out of control, is so fast he almost has to stop before he cuts (the bases). Once he learns how to run with a rhythm, he’ll be even faster.”

Gomez is rawer than even the wounds from NLCS Game 7. Also, as talented as perhaps any player the Mets have in their organization, including Reyes, Carlos Beltran, David Wright, Milledge and Fernando Martinez, the Double-A center fielder representing the organization in the Futures Game at San Francisco.

“Nice to have those options,” said Minaya, meaning the means to trade a prospect for a pitcher for this October and/or next October and still have talent arriving for Citi Field.

Options remain on Gomez to return to New Orleans when Chavez returns, even if Alou never does. But now that the kid, who also doubled inside third yesterday, has hit in seven of his last 10 games (12-for-33) to raise his average to .277, perhaps it’s not quite so automatic he goes down. And if he does, Gomez will be back. “He has a chance to be a player like Carlos Beltran,” said Minaya. “With that bat speed, he’s going to have 20-plus home-run power, it’s just a matter of time.

“He’s a center fielder learning to play the corner positions and he’s held his own there. That’s why I’ve always liked athletes. Athletes find a way to make things happen and get better.”

At minimum, it would appear Gomez learns more quickly than Alou, 41, heals.

“I look at everything [Gomez] does at this level as a positive, even the negative things,” said Randolph. “Mistakes teach him to slow things down.

“He’s having fun. But he has a confidence, a feel for himself that he is going to be here one day. For me, he’s a perfect pupil for what he’s going through right now, being open-minded enough to take advantage of this opportunity to learn.”

Meanwhile, thanks to increasing contributions from Option D, winning seems to have resumed being a viable option for the Mets.

“When Reyes goes to hit, when Gomez goes to hit, the infield thinks, ‘I don’t know how we will play these guys,’ ” said Gomez.

He appears to be catching on faster than they are.

jay.greenberg@nypost.com