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 he left with a run for the Yankees, he doubled a five-point lead in their season-ending 7-6 loss to the Dodgers at the Stadium on Wednesday night.

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, finally walking Freeman with two outs in the seventh.

But the Yankees needed Cole to pitch like an ace.

To send this World Series back to Los Angeles.

Outside of a disastrous fifth inning, which was affected by multiple miscues in the field, he was largely up to the task.

But oh, that fifth inning.

Cole started the game at his best, retiring the first eight batters he faced and not allowing a hit until Enrique Hernandez’s leadoff single in the fifth.

Follow The Post’s coverage of the Yankees in the postseason:

Then everything went wrong.

Aaron Judge and Anthony Volpe committed errors on consecutive plays.

After Cole struck out Gavin Lux and Shohei Ohtani to make it look like he was going to get out, another defensive blunder followed.

Anthony Rizzo bobbled a Mookie Betts roller, and Cole didn’t reach first base to cover, allowing the Dodgers’ first run to score.

Cole couldn’t finish off either Freeman or Hernandez, allowing two strikes on both hits, allowing the Dodgers to tie at five.

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 couldn’t get far enough away and drove in two more runs.

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 his 2024 swan song on the hill.

“I wouldn’t trust anyone else. He is Gerrit Cole,” fellow starter Carlos Rodon said earlier in the day. “I was asked this last night. His resume speaks for itself, a future Hall of Famer.”

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.