#Carlos Carrasco crumbles again in Mets’ loss to Dodgers

For Carlos Carrasco, this feels like the end of spring training.

It sure looked like it Sunday night, as he was tattooed in his second consecutive poor performance.

The veteran right-hander, who missed the first four months of the season with a torn right hamstring, was supposed to provide a jolt to the Jacob deGrom-less starting rotation. But, so far, he has not produced results anywhere close to the kind of quality innings the Mets had hoped for from the 34-year-old.

This was by far the worst of his four outings, a disastrous two-inning, six-run effort that set the tone in the Dodgers’ 14-4, sweep-clinching rout of the Mets at Citi Field on Sunday night. That came after he allowed four earned runs to the woeful Nationals in a rain-shortened performance. All told, Carrasco has a 10.32 ERA across 11 ¹/₃ innings. He has allowed more hits (18) than strikeouts (12), has a sky-high 1.85 WHIP and has yet to finish the fifth inning.

“It is [disappointing]. I’m a human being, I feel that way,” said Carrasco, who came to the Mets in the Francisco Lindor trade. “I feel pretty much right now like the end of spring training. Tomorrow is another day and I got a lot of work left to do to get better myself.”

Carrasco hasn’t come close to hitting his stride early on in his Mets career. For the two innings he was on the mound Sunday, he was treated like a piñata by the powerhouse Dodgers. He was basically throwing batting practice, giving up three home runs and five extra-base hits. He faced 13 hitters and six of them hit the ball at 100 miles per hour or harder. He put the Mets in an early six-run hole they couldn’t come close to digging out of.

Former Met Justin Turner started the barrage with a two-run shot in the first inning, his ninth in 35 career games against the Mets, and Will Smith added his third long ball of the series two batters later. Carrasco had two outs without any damage being done in the second, but then allowed a Trea Turner double and an opposite-field, two-run shot to Max Muncy.

“Tonight was different, the stuff was different,” manager Luis Rojas said. “The first pitch of the game was really good, he got a swing and miss on Turner. But not a lot of pitches were like that. The fastball didn’t have the zip that we know, the slider was sometimes hanging. And a team like this will take advantage.”

At least when Carrasco was working his way back to them from his hamstring injury, the Mets could imagine him making a difference.