Starter John Maine took a no hitter into the fifth inning Wednesday as the New York Mets rebounded from two losses to beat the Seattle Mariners 8-2.

Maine no-hit the Mariners through four until Jeremy Reed led off the fifth with a single to right to advance the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,397 games without a no hitter. The accomplishment marks the 257th time a Mets pitcher has made it through four or more no-hit innings during their 46-plus years of existence.

Here are some updated numbers on Mets pitchers who have kept Hs off the board until at least the fifth inning, courtesy of Retrosheet. *

• 153 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 (all by Tom Seaver)

Maine scattered just five hits and two earned runs over six innings of work for his eighth victory of the season. Aaron Heilman, Joe Smith and Duaner Sanchez each pitched a scoreless inning in relief.

David Wright drove in three runs with two homers to left, and Jose Reyes added a three-run round-tripper to right.

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

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.

Seattle Mariners starter Felix Hernandez hit the first grand slam by an American League pitcher in 37 years Monday to lead the Mariners to a 5-2 win over the New York Mets.

The last time that happened, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, was in 1971 when Cleveland pitcher Steve Dunning homered off of the Oakland A’s Diego Segui.

Monday night’s slam off Mets’ ace Johan Santana followed a David Wright error, so none of the runs were earned. Santana lost his no hitter in the first inning when Jose Lopez singled to left, increasing the NoNoHitters.com count to 7,395 games without a New York Mets no hitter.