Gerrit Cole was cruising. The Yankees bats had come to life. The score was 5-0 after four innings and the Dodgers were unable to score.

The World Series felt destined for Friday night in Los Angeles.

Then it all came crashing down for the reigning American League Cy Young award winner. Defense played a major role, including his own inability to cover first base, but Cole couldn’t put Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernandez in a wide spot either.

While putting the Yankees ahead by a run with two outs in the seventh inning, Cole doubled a five-run lead in their season-ending 7-6 loss to the Dodgers at the Stadium on Wednesday night.

“This is as bad as it gets,” Cole said. “It’s the worst feeling you can have. … It’s just cruel.”

Cole delivered his second-longest outing of the postseason in his biggest start in pinstripes, going 6 ²/₃ innings without allowing an earned run, striking out six and walking four.

He retired six of the last seven Dodgers he faced after walking Freeman with two outs in the seventh.

But the Yankees needed Cole to pitch as an ace to send this World Series back to Los Angeles. Ultimately, he couldn’t avert that disastrous fifth inning, partly because of his own miscue.

While errors by Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe on back-to-back plays allowed the Dodgers to load the bases with no outs, Cole came within one out of getting out of trouble after striking out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani.

However, Cole failed to cover first base on a Mookie Betts roller to Anthony Rizzo, allowing the Dodgers’ first run to score.

Cole said afterwards that he misread the spin of the ball because he thought he could play it and took a bad angle.

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“I just didn’t know how hard he was hitting and by the time the ball got to me I wasn’t in a position to cover first,” he said. “Neither of us were relying on the spin of the baseball and (Rizzo) securing it. Just a bad read.”

Cole couldn’t finish either Freeman or Hernandez, allowing two hits to both, allowing the Dodgers to tie the game at 5-5.

Freeman reached a 99 mph fastball that caught too much off the plate and delivered it to center field to score two runs.

Hernandez smoked a slider that Cole didn’t get far enough away from and drove in two more runs.

“I gave it everything I had,” he said.

To Cole’s credit, he responded to that fifth five-run run by shutting down the Dodgers from there.

That’s where Cole put his best foot forward, retiring six straight on a walk to Max Muncy.

He threw 108 pitches, his most in a game all year. He didn’t get tired late because of the high number of throws. He unloaded the tank in what would almost certainly be his 2024 swan song on the mound — even if the Yanks extended the series.

“I thought he controlled the moment and the night so well,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Obviously he was put in a tough situation in that fifth inning and he handled it so well. I don’t know how many pitches he had to throw to get out. I know it was a lot. And to still be able to go back out there and give us another good inning in the sixth and score a few more batters in the seventh, I thought he was brilliant.”

It’s been a strange year for Cole.

Due to elbow problems, he did not make his first start until June 19.

He was up and down when he was on the mound, pitching to a 3.41 ERA while his workload was closely monitored.

His first start of the playoffs was shaky, a four-run effort over five innings against the Royals.

But over his last four outings, he has held the opposition to four earned runs over 24 innings.

Yet there was that fifth inning. Freeman and Hernandez’s at-bats.

Cole couldn’t maintain the five-point lead. The Yankees are going home.