The Mets again were unable to get it going against the Phillies’ starting pitching Sunday afternoon as Jamie Moyer shut down the lineup to lead Philadelphia to a 6-2 win in the first game of a day-night doubleheader.

Moyer dominated Mets batters for 7 innings, giving up just two hits and three walks.

The Mets had to wait for the Phils’ bullpen to finally get on board, with David Wright and Carlos Beltran hitting back-to-back RBI doubles in the eighth.

Pedro Martinez lasted just four innings, giving up six earned runs on seven hits. He lost his no-hitter in the second inning when Greg Dobbs doubled to right, making it 7,462 New York Mets games without a no-no.

Johan Santana pitches for the Mets’ in the nightcap.

Carlos Beltran, Nick Evans and David Wright each hit solo homers and Pedro Martinez settled in after giving up two first-inning runs as the Mets beat the Florida Marlins 6-3 Sunday.

The Mets added three insurance runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Jose Reyes and Ryan Church and a sacrifice fly by Carlos Beltran. Reyes extended his hitting streak to 11 games, and Evans’ third-inning shot was his first Major League home run.

Martinez again lost his no-hitter on the leadoff batter - the fifth time this month - advancing our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,457 games without a no-hitter. His slow start led to two first-inning Marlins runs, but he settled in for the next five innings and at least he didn’t give up a leadoff homer.

Martinez served up opening-hit homers on Aug. 1, Aug. 6 and Aug. 21, yielded a leadoff double on Tuesday and allowed an opening single on Sunday. (See our No-hitters killed by first at bat page for more details on leadoff hits.) A typical Mets’ season sees 19 leadoff hits. We’ve already had 36 this year, and we haven’t even reached September.

The Mets tapped heavily into their bullpen, using Scott Schoeneweis, Aaron Heilman, Pedro Feliciano, Joe Smith and Brian Stokes to finish out the game. Reyes helped out Stokes with a diving run-saving grab with two outs in the ninth.

Additional help arrives tomorrow when Major League rosters expand to 40 players.

Shane Victorino led off the bottom of the 13th inning with a triple and Chris Coste drove him home early Wednesday morning as the Philadelphia Phillies overcame a 7-0 deficit to beat the New York Mets and take over first place in the N.L. East.

The Mets jumped on starter Jamie Moyer early when Jose Reyes led off with a triple in the gap and Damion Easley singled him home. The Mets then loaded the bases for Fernando Tatis, who made it 2-0 with a single to center.

Easley followed up in the second inning with a homer to left center, and then Tatis fouled off a seemingly endless barrage of pitches from Moyer before launching a fastball over the left field fence for a 3-run home run to make it 6-0.

But the Phillies creeped back, beginning in the fourth when they got their first run on a groundout. Rollins and Ryan Howard both hit two-run homers in the fifth to make it 7-5.

The Mets loaded the bases in the sixth but couldn’t capitalize, letting the Phils complete their comback with a run on three singles in the eighth and a pinch-hit RBI double in the ninth.

Reliever Aaron Heilman pitched out of jams in the 10th and 11th innings, and then retired the side in the 12th, finishing with a 3-2 slider that froze Ryan Howard.

But after giving up a leadoff triple to Victorino and intentionally walking the bases loaded, Scott Schowenweis could get just one out - a strikeout of the Phils relief pitcher - before letting Coste hit the ball into centerfield for a walk-off win.

Martinez again lost his no-hitter on the first batter, giving up a double down the right field line to Jimmy Rollins. That marked the fourth time this month that the leadoff batter has tagged Martinez (the other three were home runs) and the 911th time in the Mets’ 46+ year history that a potential Mets no-hitter was broken up by a leadoff hit. (See our No-hitters killed by first at bat page for more details on leadoff hits.) Our NoNoHitters.com count is now at 7,453.

Easley nearly became the 10th Met to hit for the cycle with an RBI single in the first, a solo homer in the second, a triple in the fourth and a bunt single in the sixth. He was due to lead off the 14th inning if the Mets could have made it that far.

A ninth-inning Carlos Delgado liner mishandled by the Braves’ Omar Infante scored David Wright Thursday night and gave the Mets a 5-4 walkoff win.

The ball, ruled a single, gave Delgado his fifth hit in five plate appearances.

The Mets with the win pull to 2 1/2 games ahead of the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League East.

Starter Pedro Martinez again gave up a leadoff homer - this time to Yunel Escobar - marking the 50th time in the Mets’ 46-year history that a first-batter homer has killed a potential no-hitter. (See our No-hitters killed by first at bat page for more details on leadoff hits.)

It was the third time Martinez has done that this month. On Aug. 1 in Houston, he gave up a leadoff homer to the Astros’ Kaz Matsui, and on Aug. 6 at Shea he yielded a first-batter dinger to the San Diego Padres’ Jody Gerut.

Escobar’s shot advanced our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,448 New York Mets games without a franchise no-hitter.

But the important stat for Martinez was innings pitched, and he lasted seven while giving up four earned runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out seven.

Pedro Feliciano and newcomer Luis Ayala did well out of the bullpen, with Ayala pitching 1 1/3 innings to get the win in relief.

The Mets again scored early and Pedro Martinez gave his teammates seven strong innings as the Mets won their fifth straight game, topping the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-4.

Jose Reyes had a homer and an RBI triple and Ramon Castro hit a two-run homer in the sixth.

Martinez gave up just one run, eight hits and one walk while striking out four. He lost his no-hitter in the first inning when Freddy Sanchez singled to left, making it 7,443 games without a no-hitter.

The Mets’ bullpen again struggled in the ninth. This time it was Eddie Kunz, who gave up two singles, one double, hit a batter and threw a wild pitch for three earned runs. Joe Smith came in to give up an single before Pedro Feliciano got the ball … and the save.

There’s nothing worse than turning on the TV hoping to watch a new show only to find out that the network is airing a rerun.

Monday afternoon’s TV listing for “Pittsburgh Pirates at New York Mets” should have been proceeded by an (R), because the 7-5 loss was essentially a rerun of … well … name your 2008 game - Solid starting pitching. Enough offensive support to win. Horrendous bullpen.

Can’t blame this one on Pedro Martinez, who gave up just 1 earned run, 3 hits, 4 walks and 3 strikeouts before leaving after 6 innings with a 5-1 lead. (Martinez, by the way, lost his no-hitter in the third inning when Scott Pearce doubled to left. The count’s now at 7,438.)

And you can’t blame it on the Mets’ bats - 5 runs and 11 hits, including a first-inning three-run round-tripper by David Wright.

So let’s take a look at our bullpen, which partitioned its breakdown into two parts.

Part 1 began in the seventh inning when Joe Smith relieved Martinez and gave up a walk and an RBI double before handing the ball off to Pedro Feliciano, who yielded a sacrifice, a double to right, and an RBI sacrifice fly.

Breakdown Part 2 came in the top of the ninth with the Mets clinging to a 5-4 lead. After striking out the leadoff hitter, Aaron Heilman gave up a single, a walk and an RBI single before getting yanked after hitting a batter. Scott Schoenweis came in to try to clean up the mess and got Brian Moss to hit into a fielder’s choice to get the second out at home.

Could we at least escape this game tied? Nope. Steve Pearce singled home two runs and the Pirates had a 7-5 lead. That’s how it would end.

I’ve always been a huge Talking Heads fan, so it’s not odd to some lyrics from an old Heads song to sneak into my brain from time to time.

Today it’s the repeated bridge lyrics from “Once In A Lifetime,” in which David Byrne sings, “Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was. Same as it ever was …”

Well, it didn’t take long to get to 7,433.

Jody Gerut knocked Pedro Martinez’s fist pitch over the right field wall Wednesday night to give the San Diego Padres a 1-0 lead (2-0 after Brian Giles’ dinger two batters later) and advance our NoNoHitters.com count one more game.

The Mets lost 4-2, but Martinez and pitched well. He lasted 6 1/3 innings, giving up just four hits but he yielding three runs (only two of them earned) and three walks.

Rookie Daniel Murphy had a strong night, going 3-for-5 with an RBI and a run scored.

The leadoff homer off Pedro marked the 49th time in the franchise’s 46 1/2-season history that a potential Mets no-hitter was broken up by a home run. In fact, Pedro did it in his previous start in Houston on Friday, yielding a leadoff homer to the Astros’ Kazuo Matsui.

See our updated No-hitters killed by first at bat page for more details on this and the 30 other instantly killed no-hitters so far this year.

The Phillies shut out the Marlins, so the Mets fall to three games back in the National League East.

Aaron Heilman gave up an eighth inning grand slam to Mark Loretta Friday night to give the Houston Astros a 7-3 win over the New York Mets.

Pedro Martinez returned to the rotation, giving up five hits and two walks over five innings. Unfortunately, three of those five hits
were solo home runs.

The first came right away, as Kazuo Matsui led off the bottom half of the first with a dinger to right-center. It’s the 48th time a New York Mets pitcher has given up a homer to the first batter, and it bumped our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,429 Mets games without a no-hitter. (See our No-hitters killed by first at bat page for more details.)

At least the Florida Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies both lost, so the Mets remain a game back on the Phils.

Pedro Martinez, Carlos Muniz, Aaron Heilman, Scott Schoeneweis and Billy Wagner combined for the 31st full-length one-hitter in New York Mets history Saturday as the Mets beat the Colorado Rockies 3-0 and moved to within a half game of the first-place Philadelphia Phillies.

Martinez was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the fourth inning after dealing with tightness in his right shoulder. He lost his no-hitter in the top half of the inning when Brad Hawpe singled to right, making it 7,414 Mets games without a no-hitter.

But the bullpen finished out the game without allowing another hit for the first Mets one-hitter since Sept. 29, 2007. On that day, John Maine (7 2/3 innings), Willie Collazo (1/3 inning) and Muniz (1 inning) combined to one-hit the Florida Marlins 13-0, giving the team a chance to reach the postseason on the final day of the 2007 season. (We all know that didn’t happen)

The Mets have now allowed three hits or less in five straight games - a Major League record according to MLB.com - after following up their previous four three-hit performances. More importantly, the Mets earned their eighth straight victory as they climb into contention in the National League East as the All-Star break approaches.

We all know how rare a Mets no-hitter is (I’m hoping to eventually see one in my lifetime) but Mets pitchers have come just one hit shy of the glorious no-no 31 times (not counting two 2007 rain-shortened one-hitters). Tom Seaver threw five of them, while Jon Matlack, Gary Gentry, David Cone and Steve Trachsel each had two (Cone also participated in a third). With Saturday’s performance, Muniz has now participated in two.

For the full list of Mets one-hitters, visit our One-hitters by Mets pitchers page.

As far as no-hitters go, Billy Wagner (who saved Saturday’s one-hitter with a perfect ninth) participated in one when he was a member of the Houston Astros.

In that June 11, 2003 game, Roy Oswalt (1 inning), Peter Munro (2 2/3 innings), Kirk Saarloos (1 1/3 innings), Brad Lidge (2 innings), Octavio Dotel (1 inning) and Wagner (1 inning) combined to beat the New York Yankes 8-0. That game is significant in that it was the only inter-league no-hitter (although Don Larsen’s 1956 World Series perfect game is technically inter-league) and it represents the most pitchers used to combine for a no-hitter.

The New York Mets are back above .500 after squeaking by the Philadelphia Phillies 10-9 to take three of four from the N.L. East leaders.

The Mets’ offense exploded for 17 hits with 3-hit games from Endy Chavez, Damion Easley and Fernando Tatis. The win puts the Mets just 2 1/2 games back in the division.

Starter Pedro Martinez lost his no-hitter when Ryan Howard singled to center in the second inning (that boosts our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,309 games without a Mets no-hitter). Martinez lasted 5 1/3 innings, giving up five hits (two of them homers) and two earned runs to improve to 3-2 on the season.

The Phils pulled within 5, thanks in part to a crappy changed call on a deep fly ball hit by Ryan Howard that was originally ruled a double. The replay clearly showed the fan reaching in front of the wall, but after indisputable discussions between four guys with no access to replay, the call was changed prompting a Jerry Manuel ejection.

Then they scored 2 runs each in the eighth and ninth inning until Chavez caught the final ball to end it. Whew!