LOS ANGELES — The bad Carlos Rodon showed up at Dodger Stadium on Saturday night.

With the Yankees in need of a big outing, Rodon instead imploded, giving his team little chance of leaving Los Angeles with a split.

He yielded three home runs and failed to get through the fourth inning in an outing that put the Yankees in an early hole from which they couldn’t climb out. Now, after a 4-2 loss to the favored Dodgers, Aaron Boone’s team is headed back to The Bronx in an 0-2 hole in the World Series.

“This start is hard, and it’s unfortunate because it is Game 2 of the World Series,” Rodon said. “I feel like I’ve been OK [in the playoffs]. I’ve tried to keep the games close. Tonight, it was tough putting the boys down 4-1. I wish I would’ve been better with some off-speed, and been a little bit more competitive and gone deeper in the game.”

The Yankees gave Rodon a six-year, $162 million contract prior to last season to pitch in big games like this.

He had a solid regular season this year after a forgettable, injury-marred campaign in 2023.

But Rodon wasn’t up to the task against the powerful Dodgers.

He registered just six swings-and-misses on his 63 pitches.

His three strikeouts were his fewest since June 21 against the Braves, 19 starts ago, and his 3 ¹/₃ innings of work equaled his shortest outing of the regular season.

It was the worst start of Rodon’s uneven postseason, in which he has allowed five homers and given up 11 earned runs in 17 ²/₃ innings, good for a dismal 5.60 ERA.

Of his four outings, this was the shortest, and it came at a bad time, with the Yankees in need of length after they went deep into their bullpen in Game 1.

Tommy Edman continued his big postseason with a solo homer in the second, and Teoscar Hernandez and Freddie Freeman went back-to-back in the third, turning around high fastballs that got way too much of the plate.

Rodon was fortunate to get out of the inning.

After Edman doubled, Kiké Hernandez lined out hard to Alex Verdugo in left field.

It was a frustrating third for Rodon.

He retired the first hitters in the inning before allowing an opposite-field single to Mookie Betts.

Then Hernandez crushed a 1-0 fastball over the right-center field fence. Freeman did the same, turning on a 3-2, 97 mph fastball for his second homer in as many games.

“The second time through [the order] they made a conscious effort of trying to get on top of those fastballs, and they did,” Rodon said. “I could’ve gotten to some better spots with them. I could’ve been a lot better with some off-speed pitches, just mixed better. Not executing those off-speed pitches kept them on the fastball.”

Juan Soto had gotten the Yankees even at a run apiece in the top of the third, but Rodon failed to deliver a shutdown frame in the bottom of the inning.

After striking out Max Muncy to start the fourth, Rodon was done, his disappointing night ending early.

“You want to go out there and put up a zero,” Rodon said.