Johan Santana pitched 7 2/3 strong innings Sunday night to lead the New York Mets to a 6-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers and bring the team back over .500.

Juan Pierre again had a leadoff hit - this time a double - to drive the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,375 games without a no-no. It’s the 894th time a Mets pitcher has yielded an opening hit, so we’ve again updated our No hitters killed by first at bat page.

Santana (7-3) yielded just four additional hits, giving up just one earned run while striking out six. Scott Schowenweis got the third out in the eighth after Joe Smith came in for Santana but hit the only batter he faced. Pedro Feliciano pitched a flawless ninth to seal the game.

Ryan Church returned to the lineup with a 3-for-4 day with a home run and two RBIs. David Wright also went 3-for-4, and Beltran hit a two-run homer.

Juan Pierre lead off the Mets-Dodgers game with a single to center off Mike Pelfrey Saturday to continue the New York Mets’ no hit woes. The count now stands at 7,374 games without a no-no.

It’s the 893rd time a Mets pitcher has yielded an opening hit, so we’ve again updated our No hitters killed by first at bat page.

Pelfrey pitched seven strong innings for the Mets, who won 3-2 to pull back to .500. Pelfrey scattered seven hits and two earned runs while striking out six. Duaner Sanchez pitched a perfect eighth and Billy Wagner struck out the side in the ninth for his 11th save.

The Mets’ offense all came in eighth, when David Wright doubled and Carlos Beltran hit a two run homer. Fernando Tatis added the go-ahead run on an RBI single.

John Maine gave up a first-inning single to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ James Loney Friday night to push the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,373 (”73-73″) games without a New York Mets no hitter.

Here in Mets land, 73 is our third favorite number second only to 69 and 86! (I guess double-zero would place fourth, but that memory is a bit soured by that team across town.)

We passed 6,969 no no-nos three seasons ago, and if our starting pitchers continue to insist on giving up at least one hit each game we would pass the 8,686 mark sometime during the 2016 season (here’s hoping that the team isn’t wearing anything close to Mercury Mets jerseys by that time).

Continuing this off-course wandering into amateur numerology, I’m looking at New York Mets game number 7,396 as the franchise’s first no hitter.

Why? The number 7,396 is a perfect square of 86 (in other words 86 x 86 = 7,396), and clearly 86 is the luckiest number in team history. Sure ‘69 was great, but there were clearly greater forces at work in ‘86.

So when is game 7,396? If there are no rainouts in the next month, game 7,396 would be played June 24, 2008, against the Seattle Mariners at Shea.

Anyway, back to Friday night’s game. It ended in a 9-5 loss, thanks in part to a strong early relief appearance by ex-Met Chan Ho Park and a 4-4 outing by Russell Martin. Oh yeah, and a horrendous relief appearance by Aaron Heilman, who faced four batters in the eighth and gave up four hits and four earned runs.

On a more positive note, Jose Reyes went 2-4 to extend his hitting streak to 15 games.

The New York Mets are back at .500 after winning their third straight game, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 Thursday night at Shea.

Starter Claudio Vargas (5 2/3 innings, 4 ER, 5 H, 1 BB) earned the victory but not the no hitter, as Dodgers’ outfielder Juan Pierre led off the game with a single to center. That moves the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,372 Mets games without a no hitter, and also makes us update our No hitters killed by first at bat page for the 14th time this season.

Since the Mets first took the field in 1962, 892 potential no hitters have been broken up by an opponent’s leadoff hit.

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.

David Wright made a diving grab in the first inning to save a run, but the Los Angeles Dodgers’ James Loney reached first on the play for an infield hit that moves the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,351 New York Mets games without a no hitter.

Starting pitcher Nelson Figueroa worked out of the jam to leave the bases loaded despite walking two in the inning. But he went on to give up five earned runs, eight hits and four walks over five innings while taking the Mets’ 5-4 loss on his record.

Dodgers’ reliever Hong-Chih Kuo struck out a remarkable eight batters during his 3 2/3 innings of work, singlehandedly killing the Mets’ offense during the middle innings. The Mets were finally able to get runners in scoring position in the eighth and ninth innings but could not capitalize.

The game featured a rare steal of home by a 41-year-old player, but it wasn’t in the traditional Jackie Robinson style.

The Mets had runners at the corners in the third inning when Angel Pagan took off from first. Dodgers’ catcher Russell Martin threw to second and Moises Alou took off from home. Both Pagan and Alou got their bases, and Alou had his fourth career steal of home - all coming on double-steals.

For the second time in a week, a leadoff home run has advanced our NoNoHitters.com count.

The Dodgers’ Rafael Furcal launched an Olilver Perez 0-2 curve ball over the left-center-field wall Monday night to give Los Angeles a 1-0 lead and make it 7,350 New York Mets games without a no hitter.

It marks the 46th time in 46 years that a potential no hitter was broken up by a leadoff home run. For something that happens on average once a year, it’s particularly odd to have two occur within seven days.

It’s the 886th time a Mets pitcher has yielded an opening hit, so we’ve again updated our No hitters killed by first at bat page.

Perez gave up six hits in six innings, but unfortunately three of those hits were home runs and he wound up yielding five earned runs. The 5-1 loss was credited to him.

The Mets never really made a dent in the Dodgers’ lead, notching their only run in the sixth when Moises Alou singled in Carlos Beltran, who lead off the inning with a standup triple. The team scattered just three other hits during the other eight innings.

The SNY cameras caught Jon Lovitz attending the game, but wasn’t that Ian Ziering of “Beverly Hills 90210″ fame sitting in the front row behind home plate?