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Former As do damage for Mets
Colon cruises through 8 innings while Young blasts 2 home runs
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NEW YORK (AP) — Slumping outfielder Chris Young homered twice, Travis d’Arnaud hit a three-run shot in his return from a demotion and the towel-waving New York Mets roughed up Scott Kazmir and the Oakland Athletics 10-1 on Tuesday night

Bartolo Colon (8-5) shut down the team that didn’t want him back this year despite an 18-win season, pitching four-hit ball for eight innings against the AL West leaders.

Curtis Granderson homered, he and David Wright had RBI groundouts, and Daniel Murphy added a run-scoring single for the Mets, who scored at least 10 runs in consecutive games for the first time since June 28-29, 2011, in Detroit. They beat Miami 11-5 on Sunday, the first game the team followed Granderson’s lead and widely used the rally towels.

Young homered off Kazmir (9-3) in the second, four pitches after Granderson hit a two-run drive for the Mets first back-to back homers since Sept. 14. Young connected off failed closer Jim Johnson in the fifth for only the Mets’ fifth four-homer game at Citi Field since it opened in 2009, according to STATS.

Manager Terry Collins earlier Tuesday said he has been talking with Young about his role and getting him on track amid rumors that Young, batting .201 coming in, was close to being cut despite having signed a one-year, $7.25 million contract in the offseason.

By the fifth inning, Young had twice trotted through the Mets newest team cheer: two parallel lines of white towel-flailing teammates in the dugout.

A first-round draft pick by New York in 2002 but sent to Tampa Bay in a very unpopular trade two years later, Kazmir flopped in his first start ever in Queens.

He entered with the AL’s best ERA (2.08) and on a four-game winning streak, but was out after just three innings and a season-high eight runs. His ERA rose to 2.66.

Kazmir went 22 starts without giving up more than one homer in a game since Aug. 8, with Cleveland.

Signed by the Mets 10 days after the A’s inked Kazmir in December, Colon won his sixth straight decision. He also singled for his second straight game, much to the delight of the 25,751 in attendance.

Colon only faced trouble in the first when Yoenis Cespedes followed Brandon Moss’ single with a double to the wall in center field for the early lead.

Colon gave up a hit to Cespedes in the fourth and another single in the fifth to Coco Crisp, but he otherwise cruised through the best run-producing lineup in the majors.

D’Arnaud was recalled after a two-week stint in Triple-A Las Vegas. The Mets’ catcher of the future was hitting .180 when he was sent down. He struck out in the second but connected in the third.

NOTES: Wright tied a career high with an RBI in his seventh straight game. ... The Mets said 1B coach Tom Goodwin was not with the team because of “a personal family matter.” Bench coach Bob Geren was at first base and senior adivser Guy Conti took Geren’s spot on the bench. ... A’s C Derek Norris was out of the starting lineup after being hit in the head by a backswing Sunday. Manager Bob Melvin said something needs to be done to rein in the big swings. He wasn’t sure what, though. ... The A’s placed 1B Kyle Blanks on the 15-day DL with a left calf strain. ... First base umpire Joe West was hit in the chest by a line drive but he barely flinched. ... Up next: Oakland LHP Brad Mills (0-0) vs. New York RHP Zack Wheeler (3-7).