CINCINNATI -- Jason Bay hit his first home run since July 18 on Thursday night. It only seemed like it had been longer.

In a season he would sooner just forget, Bay homered, singled and scored twice in four at-bats in an 8-4 victory against the Reds at Great American Ball Park. Bay’s 356-foot homer to right field in the sixth inning off Homer Bailey gave the Mets' rookie starter Matt Harvey a 4-0 lead.

“Obviously everybody is rooting for him so it was nice to see Jason get a couple of hits and contribute with the home run,” said manager Terry Collins. “He’s a good player. I’m telling you, if we can jump-start him somehow, some way he’s going help.”

Bay should be back in the lineup Friday night when the Mets open up a three-game series at Washington. Left-hander Ross Detwiler will be starting for the Nationals.

Bay came into the game hitting just .150 in 44 games. Injuries have limited his time and the Mets have been platooning him with rookie Jordany Valdespin against right-handed pitchers. The home run was Bay’s sixth of the season.

“I’ve been adjusting to the role I’m in now and it’s actually provided me a little more time to work on some things and to go out there and have some results because of that," said Bay. "I’ve felt good before with no results so to get a couple of results and provide a little spark hopefully, that flint that hopefully gets you going.”

Bay’s two hits also gave him his first multiple-hit game since July 18.

The eight runs scored by the Mets on Thursday were the most by the team since Aug. 2 when they beat the Padres 9-1 in San Diego. They scored multiple runs in three innings Thursday.

“It’s been eight, nine games pretty stagnant offensively,” said Bay. “That’s something when we were going good we weren’t putting up 10 (runs) but we were putting up five or six and getting good pitching. We haven’t been doing much of anything lately. It was kind of nice to have a little bit of a breather.”