The Washington Nationals’ Felipe Lopez led off with a double to right Wednesday night to bump the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,358 New York Games without a no hitter.

Claudio Vargas, a 29-year-old righthander called up from the AAA New Orleans Zephyrs, gave up the hit, which marks the 889th time a Mets pitcher has yielded an opening hit, and the 142nd potential no hitter broken up by a double.

That made us update our No hitters killed by first at bat page for the 11th time this season. Couldn’t we at least take these a little deeper into the game?

The Mets lost 5-3, and Vargas took the loss despite allowing just three hits and two earned runs over 6 1/3 innings of work. Reliever Aaron Heilman wasn’t much help, giving up three earned runs in his 1/3 of an inning, prompting choruses of boos from the Shea crowd.

In other Mets pitching woos news, the club designated starter Nelson Figueroa and reliever Jorge Sosa for assignment, meaning the club has 10 days to trade, release or send them to the minors.

The Washington Nationals’ Austin Kearns hit a second-inning single off of John Maine Tuesday night to put the New York Mets NoNoHitters.com count at 7,357 games without a no hitter.

Maine’s strong outing during the Mets 6-3 win earned him his fifth victory of the season. He lasted six innings, yielding just one other hit, one walk and one earned run to drop his season ERA down to 2.81. Maine struck out five.

Billy Wagner got his eighth save of the season and has still yet to give up an earned run this season.

Right fielder Ryan Church went 2-for-4 with a double, a homer and 4 RBIs. Catcher Brian Schneider went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.

Washington Nationals’ starting pitcher Odalis Perez opened the third inning with a single to right field Monday night to advance the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,356 New York Mets games without a no hitter.

Mets’ starter Nelson Figueroa lasted just five innings, giving up six runs (four of them earned) on five hits and five walks.

Perez, on the other hand, helped his cause at the plate by going 3-for-3 with two RBIs.

The Mets lost 10-4, and I don’t really have too much more to say about it. This season seems like it’s been two steps forward, two steps back.

Oliver Perez gave up a second-inning single to the Cincinnati Reds’ Jeff Keppinger Sunday to bump the NoNoHitters count to 7,355 games without a New York Mets no hitter.

Perez didn’t give up another hit until the sixth inning, when he allowed the Reds’ only three earned runs of the game. The Mets won 8-3, and Perez - who threw eight strikeouts - earned his third victory of the year.

The Mets had 14 hits on the day, including back-to-back homers by Carlos Beltran and Ryan Church in the fifth.

We also got to see an odd spectacle typically reserved for Little League games. David Ross lined out in the ninth, but he did so in Corey Patterson’s No. 8 position in the lineup. So after some umpire get-togethers, Patterson was ruled out and Ross got a second at-bat (and a single).

The exclusive club of Major League franchises that have never thrown a no hitter nearly got a little smaller this weekend.

The Tampa Bay Rays’ James Shields through a complete game, one-hit shutout Friday night, nearly dropping that franchise off a four-team list that includes the Rays, the New York Mets, the San Diego Padres and the Colorado Rockies.

The Rays, formerly known as the Devil Rays, began play in 1998, so their tally pales in comparison to the Mets’ 46-year-old count.

The amazing thing about Shields’ performance is he had no run support - at least until the very end. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the ninth when Evan Longoria hit a two-run dinger to give Tampa Bay a 2-0 victory.

It was the first time in Major League history that a team won a nine-inning, one-hit shutout with a walk-off homer, according to a Tampa Tribune story, quoting the Elias Sports.

Shields gave up only a third-inning single to center by the Angels’ Brandon Wood and hit Erick Aybar with a pitch in the fourth.

Today’s day-night doubleheader didn’t even hint that we might witness the first no hitter in New York Mets history.

Mike Pelfrey gave up a leadoff double to the Cincinnati Reds’ Ryan Freel in the night game to bump the NoNoHitters.com to 7,354 games without a New York Mets no hitter. Earlier Saturday, Corey Patterson’s leadoff bunt single off Johan Santana made it 7,353.

Freel’s double marked the 888th time a Mets pitcher has yielded an opening hit, and the 141st potential no hitter broken up by a double. And it makes us update our No hitters killed by first at bat page for the second time today! This is getting exhausting!

Pelfrey took the loss but had a pretty good outing, giving up two runs and eight hits over six innings. He walked just one.

The Mets lost 7-1, but most of the game was a lot closer than the score indicates. Duaner Sanchez gave up two earned runs and allowed four hits in the eighth, and a pair of errors by David Wright and Carlos Delgado led Billy Wagner to give up three unearned runs in the ninth.

Wagner managed to keep his ERA at 0.00, but he wasn’t his usual self. He gave up two hits and walked one before being pulled for Jorge Sosa.

Corey Patterson lead off the game with a bunt single off Johan Santana Saturday afternoon to bump our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,353 games without a no hitter.

It’s the 887th time a Mets pitcher has yielded an opening hit, so we’ve again updated our No hitters killed by first at bat page. 667 of those potential no hitters were broken up by a single

Santana wound up giving up three earned runs and 10 hits over six innings worth of work, but the Mets came alive offensively to beat the Reds 12-6 for Santana’s fourth victory of the season.

It was a good day for the Carloses.

Carlos Beltran went 2-for-3 - including a bases-loaded triple - with five RBIs and one run scored. And Delgado was just a triple short of hitting for the cycle (although a Delgado triple is a longshot), going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI.

Rain has postponed tonight’s Mets-Reds game and it will be made up as part of a day-night doubleheader on Saturday.

Our focus at NoNoHitters.com is Mets no hitters - or more accurately, the lack thereof - but we also have an affinity for hits-for-the-cycle as the feat of hitting a single, double, triple and home run in a single game is a slightly more rare feat than a no hitter.

There have been 270 no hitters thrown in Major League history, while players have had 253 hits for cycle during that period. As we all know, nine Mets have hit for the cycle during their 46 years of existence, while no Mets have every hurled a no no.

So we have to offer kudos to former Met Carlos Gomez, who hit for the cycle Wednesday night during the Minnesota Twins 13-1 pummeling of the Chicago White Sox. The speedy centerfielder - traded to the Twins in the Johan Santana deal - did it in reverse order, beginning with a homer and working his way back to a single by barely beating a throw for an infield hit.

Way to go Carlos!

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ Chin-lung Hu doubled to deep right with one out in the third inning Wednesday to bump the NoNoHitters.com to 7,352 games without a New York Mets no hitter.

It was one of just four hits given up by starter John Maine, who took a shutout into the ninth inning before giving up a double, walk and a single in the ninth for the Dodgers sole run. Duaner Sanchez retired the next two batters to seal the Mets’ 12-1 victory.