Derek Jeter hit a one-out fourth inning signle Sunday to break up Oliver Perez’s three-inning no hitter and move the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,401 New York Mets games without a no hitter.

Perhaps Perez’s strong stretch was jinxed by TBS play-by-play announcer Chip Caray and borrowed SNY analyst Ron Darling, who discussed the Mets’ dubious streak during the third inning. Keep it quiet on-air until it happens, fellas.

Anyway, Perez pitched a brilliant game, giving up just three hits - one of them being a home run - in seven innings of work. O-P also struck out 8 as the Mets move back to just a game shy of .500.

So much for my perfect square theory.

Back on May 30, I made the bold prediction that the Mets no hitters curse would be broken in the team’s 7,396th game. Why? Because the number 7,396 is a perfect square of 86 (in other words 86 x 86 = 7,396), and clearly ‘86 was the luckiest year in team history.

But in the first inning of game 7,396, Jose Lopez singled to center off Oliver Perez to extend the streak of the New York Mets never accomplishing a no hitter at least one more game.

And then, the Mets lose 11-0.

I’ll refrain from any further predictions.

The New York Mets scored runs in the ninth and tenth innings Wednesday night to notch a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Angels.

After David Wright spoiled Angels’ closer Francisco Rodriguez’s save opportunity with a two-out RBI single in the ninth, Damion Easley homered in the 10th to give new manager Jerry Manuel his first Mets victory.

Starter Oliver Perez, who pitched a solid game during our visit to Shea Friday night, threw three scoreless innings before yielding four runs in the fourth and fifth. He lost his no-hit bid in the third inning when Chone Figgins singled to right, bumping our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,391 without a Mets no hitter.

The New York Mets helped make my kids’ first visit to Shea - and likely my final trip - a memorable one.

Oliver Perez shook off a first-inning homer by the Texas Rangers’ Josh Hamilton to pitch seven solid innings Friday night to lead the New York Mets to a 7-1 win that we hope will put the team back on track.

Hamilton’s blast bumped the NoNoHitters.com count up to 7,386 Mets games without a no hitter, but no worries. the Mets needed a “W” more than a no-no at this point in the season and Perez (7 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 7 K) was up to the challenge. As Perez held the Rangers scoreless, the Mets jumped right back with two runs in the bottom half of the first and squeezed out another in the fifth on a David Wright sacrifice fly before breaking out with four runs in the sixth.

It’s been years since I last visited Shea, and during the past few seasons I’ve heard a ton of commentators say what a dump the place is. I wholeheartedly disagree. When I watched my first Mets game in person in 1975, I found the place absolutely amazing and Friday’s trip did little to change that youngster’s impression. Sure, Citi Field looks like it’ll be incredible, but Shea in all its chipped-paint-glory holds my childhood memories and nothing will change that. Now I know what my dad was feeling when he used to wax eloquent about losing Ebbets Field.

Friday (Day 3 of our road trip) started early in Western Pennsylvania (about 400 miles from Shea) with a crappy breakfast and one dad and two kids a tad cranky from a lack of sleep. Michael and Alex grabbed an extra hour of shuteye in the car as I used the gas pedal to try to make up the hour or two lost Thursday after the Cubs game at Wrigley headed into extra innings.

We poked through the Lincoln Tunnel around 1:30 p.m. and after uttering - and apologizing for uttering - a few profanities while trying to readjust to NYC-style driving (I don’t get much practice in South Dakota), we arrived at our hotel at 32nd and Broadway and met my nephew Bryan from New Jersey.

Our bellhop (a diehard Mets fan) suggested we skip the 7 train and take the LIRR from Penn Station. I never went in that way, but though slightly more expensive it was a comfortable trip that shaved about a half our off our travel time. That got us to Shea in plenty of time for batting practice.

BP is always fun, but I was amazed at how few players come over to the stands to sign balls or scorecards nowadays. It’s all about “special access” in this era, and we weren’t the on-field folks.

Fortunately, Mets prospect Reese Havens, the No. 22 overall pick in this year’s First-Year Player Draft, dropped by the dugout and signed balls for several fans (including my sons). Both Havens, the 21-year-old shortstop from the University of South Carolina, and fellow recent draftee Brad Holt donned Mets jerseys for BP, though who knows if they’ll ever wear them for real. But my boys were excited to get an autograph, even though none of their favorite players came over.

Some other random musings:

• Where was Mr. Met? The Mets’ mascot was a no-show through five, then appeared just for a few T-shirt blasts and never mingled anywhere near our boxes. What’s up with that?
• Hot dog or California roll? Friday night was the first time I got to try out the Metropolitan Club waiter service, and although I was tempted to add a side of sushi to our order just for the novelty, I stuck to the well worn “beer and a dog” philosophy.
• Eight, eight, seven: My nephew Bryan informs me that the proper number of claps to do in sequence to the “Everybody clap your hands” cheer is 31 - or eight, eight, seven. That helps save that embarrassing 32nd clap.
• Omar calling: I managed to snap a photo during BP of Omar Minaya talking on his cell phone. I wonder who was on the other end. Another GM? His agent? The Domino’s guy? You make the call.

Another night game against the Padres, another 2-1 loss.

Scott Hairston knocked a Pedro Feliciano fastball over the left field wall in the bottom of the 10th early Sunday morning for a walkoff home run that put the New York Mets back under .500.

Starter Oliver Perez didn’t go too deep in the game, but he had a much better outing than his previous 1/3-inning, 6-run performance. Perez gave up one earned run and four hits in 5 1/3 innings, with one of those hits being a home run.

The Padres’ Brian Giles broke up the no hitter in the first inning with a double to center to bump the NoNoHitters.com count up to 7,381 games. For the record, the Padres are one of just three teams other than the Mets to have never thrown a no hitter. The others are the Tampa Bay Rays and the Colorado Rockies.

The Padres however did become the first team to ever win four consecutive games by a score of 2-1 - one against the Cubs and three versus the Mets.

For the 47th time in the New York Mets’ 46-year history, a potential no hitter was broken up by a leadoff home run.

San Francisco Giants leadoff hitter Randy Winn drove a belt-high 3-2 fastball over the left-field fence Monday night to make it 7,376 Mets games without a no hitter.

Frankly we’re getting a little sick of updating our No hitters killed by first at bat page, which we just did for the 17th time this season. We’ve now had 895 of the Mets’ 7,376 franchise games killed by a leadoff hit.

It didn’t get any better for Perez, who gave up six earned runs, five hits (two of them home runs) and two walks in just a third of an inning. Apparently repeatedly throwing fastballs over the center of the plate is not a good strategy. Puzzling.

Sarcasm aside, this Jekyll/Hyde question mark going into each Perez start is getting old. This was an important game to continue building momentum, and to put your team behind 6-0 at the outset is not much help.

Claudio Vargas (4 2/3 innings, 0 ER) did his best to let the Mets catch up, but the game ended in a 10-3 loss, dropping the club back to .500. Pedro Martinez is on the hill Tuesday night.

Fernando Tatis’ line-drive double down the left field line Wednesday night led the New York Mets to a 7-6 12th inning victory over the first-place Florida Marlins. The hit scored David Wright from third, and Beltran sped all the way in from first as the relay throw was mishandled.

The Mets, who were trailing 6-5 before the one-out hit, mobbed Tatis to celebrate his walkoff.

Oliver Perez lost his no-hit bid in the third when Marlins’ catcher Mike Rabelo homered to left, advancing the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,371 New York Mets games without a no hitter. Perez gave up just four hits over three innings, but three of them were homers resulting in five earned runs. Duaner Sanchez was credited with the victory.

The change in elevation did nothing for the Mets. Matt Holliday singled to right in the 13th inning scoring Jonathan Herrera to give the Rockies the 6-5 win. The Mets had some offense with back to back homers by Delgado and Tatis in the 6th. No no hitter tonight as the Rockies’ Clint Barmes hit a ground rule double to left center off of Oliver Perez in the 1st inning.

Oliver Perez pitched a season-high 8 2/3 innings as the Mets trounced the Yankees 11-2. Home runs from Church and Reyes and key hits from Alou were among the many sparks from the Mets’ bats. The big buzz of the game came in the top of the fourth inning when Carlos Delgado hit a long homer to left field that bounced off the foul pole. The third base umpire originally called it fair but the call was changed to a foul after the home plate umpire overruled. The countless replays showed it was fair (as well as a nick in the tape on the pole and a scuff on the ball that the fan recovered — can you say shoe polish?). Delgado came back with an RBI single but I spent the rest of the game adding 2 runs to the score. The No Hitter was broken up in the bottom of the 4th with a single to center by Derek Jeter.

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).