ATLANTA — Any “luck” the Mets might have previously received against the Braves disappeared Monday night. 

Not only were the Mets thoroughly embarrassed by the top threat to their NL East title dreams, but for a second straight game a key player departed with an injury. 

This one hit the rotation. Carlos Carrasco returned to pitch following a rain delay and was holding his left side as he departed through the dugout tunnel after the second inning, adding to the Mets’ disgust in their 13-1 loss to the Braves at Truist Park. 

Carrasco’s ailment — called “left-side tightness” by the team — occurred only hours after the Mets placed Luis Guillorme on the injured list with a “moderate” left groin strain. The expectation is Guillorme, who departed Sunday’s game with the injury, will miss the next four to six weeks. 

Carrasco will receive imaging on his left side Tuesday, after which the Mets will determine if he can take his next turn in the rotation. 

“It just got tight a little bit and I didn’t want to push more,” said Carrasco, who said his discomfort stemmed only from his final pitch of the night. 

Buck Showalter was asked if he had pushed his luck in sending Carrasco back to the mound following the 55-minute rain delay in the second inning. 

The manager noted that Carrasco continued throwing during the delay to keep loose. Carrasco played catch in the batting cage and went to the bullpen to throw several pitches after an estimated restart time had been issued. 

“It was less than an hour and he basically kept pitching,” Showalter said. “It wasn’t like he was sitting around for the time, not as much for instance as their guy.” 

After allowing four earned runs over 2 ²/₃ innings in a loss to the Mets at Citi Field eight days earlier, Braves rookie pitcher Spencer Strider alluded to the home team’s “luck” with well-placed hits. 

Strider had better luck this time, allowing one earned run on three hits over five innings in helping the Braves move within 4 ½ games of the Mets. Like Carrasco, the Braves right-hander returned to pitch after the rain delay. 

Carrasco returned following the hiatus and walked Dansby Swanson before retiring Austin Riley. Joely Rodriguez replaced Carrasco for the third inning. 

“I’ve had a lot of stuff, but this is the first time I have felt something like this,” Carrasco said. 

The Mets have David Peterson lined up to pitch Saturday as part of a doubleheader in Philadelphia with Carrasco scheduled for the other game. If Carrasco is sidelined, the Mets could turn toward Trevor Williams for the start. 

Carrasco allowed three earned runs, which included consecutive homers to William Contreras and Eddie Rosario in the second inning. Another run scored after Mark Canha lost Ronald Acuna Jr.’s fly ball to left field in the sky. 

The Braves seized control of the game in the fourth, scoring twice against Rodriguez and Adonis Medina. After Vaughn Grissom singled and later raced to third base on Michael Harris’ slow grounder, Acuna stroked an RBI double that put the Mets in a 4-0 hole. Swanson followed with an RBI single. 

The Mets got their run in the fifth, using Jeff McNeil’s leadoff double to score a run on Eduardo Escobar’s ground out. McNeil had reached third on his shot to right-center on an Acuna throwing error. 

Medina and Mychal Givens were torched for eight runs in the sixth inning. Travis d’Arnaud delivered the definitive jolt in the inning, a three-run homer against Givens that extended the Braves’ lead to 13-1. D’Arnaud had led off the inning by reaching on Escobar’s fielding error. Harris, Acuna, Swanson and Matt Olson also had run-scoring hits in the inning. 

With the Mets trailing by 12 runs in the seventh, first baseman Darin Ruf was thrust into bullpen duty and pitched a perfect inning. Ruf returned to the mound and allowed one hit in a scoreless eighth.