The cardboard cutouts behind home plate at Truist Park have shown as much life as the Mets offense in recent days. Like Yoenis Cespedes, their bats didn’t show up on Sunday.

After exploding for 10 runs in the first six innings Friday night, the Mets managed just one over the past 22 innings and have now lost five straight games following Sunday’s dismal 4-0 loss to the Braves in Atlanta.

As has been the case for most of this abbreviated season, the Mets imploded with runners in scoring position, managing just an infield single in 15 opportunities and leaving 13 runners on base to fall to 3-7 a sixth of the way into this 60-game abbreviated season. Only Jacob deGrom stands in the way of an ugly four-game sweep against their rivals.

“We have to be better. I don’t think there’s any way to sugarcoat that,” general manager Brodie Van Wagenen said over Zoom. “We have expectations that we have not met — that we haven’t come close to meeting yet. We want to be a better team than what we’ve shown these first 10 games.”

Early in the game, the Mets announced Cespedes didn’t show up to the ballpark on Sunday and didn’t contact anyone from the team to explain his whereabouts. Later on, Van Wagenen said Cespedes had opted out of his contract due to concerns with COVID-19, though The Post’s Mike Puma reported he was upset about being benched and worried he was being kept out of the lineup to prevent him from reaching lucrative performance bonuses.

Without the struggling and oft-injured 34-year-old slugger, the Mets didn’t perform any better. They actually out-hit the Braves, 10-7, but continued to be inept in big spots. Pete Alonso, looking completely out of sorts — he’s in a 1-for-16 slump with seven strikeouts over his past four games — failed three times with runners in scoring position. Robinson Cano and Tomas Nido each grounded into killer inning-ending double plays with multiple men on base.

“It’s disappointing right now. We have to put it together,” manager Luis Rojas said. “And when I say put it together, when we pitch well — I thought we pitched really well today — we have to come through in those at-bats. We are creating situations. … You get a couple of walks from [Brandon] Nimmo, you get three from [Jeff] McNeil at the top of the order there, there were some situations that were created a few times. We got to deliver.”

There was one bright spot. In his second major league start, David Peterson pitched well, limiting the Braves to three runs across six innings while striking out eight. He allowed two runs in the third, in part to a mental mistake by Jeff McNeil, and a solo homer to Johan Camargo in the fourth. In the third, with second and third and nobody out, Adeiny Hechavarria grounded out to McNeil at third. McNeil instantly threw home instead of running at the runner, which enabled Adam Duvall to return to the base safely. Peterson walked Ronald Acuna Jr. with the bases loaded to force in the game’s first run and Freddie Freeman grounded out to plate another.

The way the Mets were hitting when runners got on base, though, it didn’t matter how well Peterson pitched. Their issues coming up in the clutch reached comedic proportions, going hitless in their first 10 at-bats with runners in scoring position. Even when Amed Rosario singled with J.D. Davis on second base in the sixth inning, it didn’t plate a run since Dansby Swanson kept the ball in the infield with a headlong dive. Predictably, Nido grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.

The Mets put a runner on third base with less than two outs twice and failed to score on each occasion. They had the leadoff man on six times and couldn’t score. And now, just 10 days into this shortened season, they are flirting with playing their way out of contention very early.

“It’s a short season and we don’t have the luxury of figuring it out over the first couple of months of the year,” Van Wagenen said. “We have to get it going.”