MLB

Mets’ Bay finds higher power

Jason Bay’s longball stroke returned last night. But unless he changes his pattern, he might not go deep again until July.

The Mets left fielder snapped a confounding stretch of 104 at-bats without a home run and 89 at-bats without an extra-base hit, crushing a solo homer off the second deck in left field in a 7-3 loss to the A’s at Citi Field. It was only his third homer this season — one in which he has not recorded more than one home run in any calendar month.

Bay almost cracked a second homer last night (it turned out to be a triple, upheld after a video review), and went 3-for-3 with a walk. In his past six games, Bay has gone 10-for-24 with four multihit games, raising his average from .207 to .236.

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Since June 4, Bay has primarily batted sixth, and rose to fifth on occasion. But he could be shifted higher tonight.

“If he’s going to swing, I’m going to move him up. That’s why he’s here,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “I don’t want to jam him in the spot as he’s starting to get comfortable. But [tonight] we’re facing a guy [lefty Gio Gonzalez] who’s really tough, and having Jason Bay in the middle of the lineup might help.”

Bay said he’d be thrilled to be bumped higher, though he said, “I’ll hit anywhere. I told TC that.”

Either way, Bay is faring far better lately. He says the primary difference is how he’s “using my legs more” during his swing.

Last night Josh Outman was the primary victim, as Bay singled off the Oakland lefty in the second inning, walked in the fourth and slammed his homer in the sixth, his first since May 13 against the Astros.

In the eighth, Bay tripled off lefty reliever Brian Fuentes, blasting a shot to deep center that hit off Coco Crisp’s glove and came close to going over the fence. It was initially ruled a triple, and although the umps went to a video review, the triple was upheld.

– Additional reporting by Dan Martin.

mark.hale@nypost.com