If Johan Santana wants to get more wins for the New York Mets, he’s apparently going to have to pitch nine innings.

Reliever Scott Schoenweis gave up a one-out ninth-inning homer to the San Diego Padres Jody Gerut (who’s been quite the Mets killer this series) to tie the game at 3 and erase Santana’s chance for a win. The Mets then brought in Aaron Heilman - who’s made giving up homers a habit this season - and he retired the next two batters.

But no worry. David Wright hit a clutch two-run homer to left in the bottom of the ninth to give the Mets a 5-3 win, which is credited in the books to Heilman.

The Mets no-hitter was again killed by the long-ball, but this time it didn’t come until the second inning when Santana gave up a homer to left to Chase Headley. That bumped our NoNoHitters.com count to 7,434 games without a no-hitter.

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.

The New York Mets barely avoided another ninth-inning meltdown Tuesday night, holding on to beat the Houston Astros 6-5.

With a 6-2 lead heading into the ninth, the Mets handed the ball to Aaron Heilman, who let two runners reach base before giving up a three-run homer to Jody Gerut. Fortunately, Joe Smith and Scott Schoeneweis were able to each get an out to end the game.

Fernando Tatis lit up the offense with two homers for four RBIs, and rookies Dan Murphy and Nick Evans scored the Mets’ other two runs.

Starter Mike Pelfrey earned his 10th win of the season, going 6 2/3 innings while giving up two earned runs on nine hits. He struck out three and walked one. Pelfrey lost his no-hitter in the first inning when Brian Giles singled to center, advancing the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,432 Mets games without a no-hitter.

The San Diego Padres completed a 4-game sweep of the New York Mets with an 8-6 victory Sunday. At least it wasn’t a 2-1 loss.

The Mets finally got their offense going after posting single runs in the last three games, but it wasn’t enough. Billy Wagner - in relief for Duaner Sanchez - gave up a three-run home run to Tony Clark to put the Padres ahead in the eight.

The game got off to a fast start with the Mets and Padres each scoring three runs in the first inning. The NoNoHitters.com count moved up to 7,382 New York Mets games without a no hitter when starter Pedro Martinez yielded a first inning single to Brian Giles.

The New York Mets lost another 2-1 game Friday night, and again it began with a leadoff hit.

This time, Scott Hairston opened the game with a single to bump the NoNoHiiters.com count up to 7,380 New York Mets games without a no hitter. That’s 898 games that have begun with a hit, so our No hitters killed by first at bat page has again been updated.

For the second straight night, the Mets wasted a strong starting pitching performance with an offense that never showed up. Johan Santana gave up just one earned run in six innings but took the “L.”

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.