Mike Pelfrey pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings Sunday to lead the Mets to a 3-1 victory over the Colorado Rockies.

Jose Reyes again opened the game with a triple and David Wright singled him home to give Pelfrey an early 1-0 lead. Carlos Beltran’s blast with Wright on-base in the third provided the rest of the Mets’ offense. The Mets had only six hits and the Rockies managed just four in a rare pitchers’ duel in a hitters’ ballpark.

Rockies’ No. 2 hitter Jeff Baker again killed the no-hitter opportunity - this time with an infield single in the first - to advance the NoNoHitters.com count at 7,394 New York Mets games without a no hitter.

For the 900th time in franchise history, a potential New York Mets no hitter has been broken up by the first at-bat.

Chone Figgins doubled to left off Mike Pelfrey Monday night to increase the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,389 New York Mets games without a single no-no. It’s the 900th time that has happened on the first at bat, and the 675th time it has occurred with a single. (Check out our No hitters killed by first at bat for more details.)

This is happening way to often this season. Over the Mets’ previous 46 seasons, there have been an average of just over 19 no hitters broken up on the first at-bat. So far in 2008 (and we’re not even close to the All Star break yet) there have been 22! And Pelfrey has had six of them:

• May 3, 2008: In Arizona, Mike Pelfrey gives up a leadoff single to the Diamondbacks’ Chris Young.
• May 10, 2008 (Game 2 of a day-night doubleheader): In New York, Mike Pelfrey gave up a leadoff double to the Cincinnati Reds’ Ryan Freel.
• May 31, 2008: In New York, Mike Pelfrey gives up a leadoff single to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Juan Pierre
• June 5, 2008: In San Diego, Mike Pelfrey gives up a leadoff single to the Padres’ Jody Gerut
• June 12, 2008: In New York, Mike Pelfrey gives up a leadoff single to the Arizona Diamondbacks’ Chris Young
• June 16, 2008: In Anaheim, Mike Pelfrey gives up a leadoff single to the Los Angeles Angels’ Chone Figgins

Of course, Pelfrey also went the deepest this season without giving up a hit, throwing six innings of no-hit ball against the Washington Nationals on May 15.

The Mets won 9-6, but it was not enough to save the job of Manager Willie Randolph, who was let go a couple hours after the game finished.

Carlos Beltran hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 13th inning Tuesday night to lead the New York Mets to a well-needed 5-3 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Starter Mike Pelfrey pitched well enough to earn a win (8 innings, 5 hits, 1 earned run) but Billy Wagner blew his save opportunity in the ninth. Instead, Claudio Vargas, whose been settling well into a long relief role since Pedro Martinez’s return, got the W.

Our No hitters killed by first at bat page earned another update tonight, as Pelfrey gave up a leadoff single to Chris Young singled to center. That put the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,384 New York Mets games without a no hitter.

The leadoff hitter has once again killed New York Mets’ fans’ chance of seeing a no hitter.

Mike Pelfrey gave up a leadoff single to the Padres’ Jody Gerut Thursday night to drive our NoNoHiiters.com count up to 7,379 New York Mets games without a no hitter. Over the Mets’ 46-plus-year history, 897 games have begun with a hit, and 672 have started with a single.

For more info on these leadoff hits, check out our No hitters killed by first at bat page, which is supposed to just need some occasional updates but has been getting a lot of work this season.

The game remained locked in a 1-1 tie through the ninth, when reliever Scott Schowenweis gave up a walk, another walk and an infield single before hitting Paul McAnulty with a pitch to end the game on a walk-off hit batsman.

Pelfrey did his part in this pitchers’ duel, yielding just one earned run in six innings of work while pitching out of several jams to strand runners in scoring position. He gave up eight hits and three walks but manage to let just one Padre touch the plate.

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.

The Florida Marlins’ Mike Jacobs doubled to right in the first inning off Mike Pelfrey Monday night to advance the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,369 games without a New York Mets no hitter.

The double scored Jorge Cantu, who had reached base on a Jose Reyes error. Reyes made up for it in the bottom of the first, extending his hitting streak to 11 with a leadoff home run into the right field loge seats. The Mets’ shortstop would hit another homer in the second inning to put the Mets up 3-2, but that was the end of the Mets’ offense in a game that ended in a 7-3 loss.

That’s seven losses in eight games for the Mets, who have a team payroll of $138 million. The first-place Marlins - who put together a team for $22 million - now have a 6 1/2-game lead over the Mets.

I don’t care too much for money, ’cause money can’t buy you wins.

The Mets’ continued their downward spiral in Atlanta dropping their third straight game by a score of 11-4. Mike Pelfrey was pulled in the 5th inning after giving up 6 earned runs. The Braves’ Kelly Johnson singled to right in the 2nd inning to ensure another NoNoHitter.

After Mike Pelfrey threw six innings of no-hit ball against the Washington Nationals on Thursday, Mets Walk-Offs asked David at Retrosheet to see how many times a Mets starter made it that deep in a game with a zero still in the opponent’s H column.

He found that Mets pitchers have made it through four or more no-hit innings 256 times during their 46-plus years of existence.

Here’s the breakdown:

• 152 potential Mets no hitters were broken up in the fifth
• 64 potential Mets no hitters were broken up in the sixth
• 22 potential Mets no hitters were broken up in the seventh
• 15 potential Mets no hitters were broken up in the eighth
• 3 potential Mets no hitters were broken up in the ninth

Information used here was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted by Retrosheet. Interested parties may contact Retrosheet at www.retrosheet.org.

Maybe we should stop holding out for a no hitter and just start rooting for victories.

Mike Pelfrey took a no hitter into the sixth inning Thursday, but the New York Mets gave their starter no run support and wound up losing to the Washington Nationals 1-0 as the NoNoHitters.com count climbed to 7,359 games without a Mets no hitter.

Pelfrey’s no-hit bid came to an end when he gave up an Aaron Boone single in the seventh. Pelfrey pitched out of the inning, but he gave up a sacrifice fly RBI in the eighth for the game’s only run.

And for the record, the correct count number is in fact 7,359. Gary Cohen had mentioned 7,360 during the broadcast, but we’ll likely move up to that pinnacle Friday night against the Yankees. ESPN, which used the 7,359 number, also noted that Pelfrey’s effort was the 40th time the Mets took a no-no past the sixth.

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.