In what could be his final Yankee Stadium appearance of 2021, Gerrit Cole walked off the mound to a sixth-inning chorus of boos.

“I came in here to try to win a series and put it out of reach,” Cole said, when asked if he felt like he let his club down.

Yet when Aaron Boone opined of Cole, “Certainly his line is not indicative of how he threw the ball,” well, you shan’t overlook that hitting Bradley Zimmer and walking Jose Ramirez in the first inning gave meaning to the fluky hits that followed.

He surrendered solo homers to Jose Ramirez in the fifth and Roberto Perez in the sixth, and as the $324 million man said, “It’s a crucial game, and that was too many runs to come back from.”?

The same situation occurred June 27 at Fenway Park, when Cole got hammered for six runs (five earned) by the Red Sox as the Yankees tried and failed to avoid a weekend sweep.

And June 3 in The Bronx as the Yankees attempted to register a series win over the Rays and instead saw Cole give up five runs over five innings.

And July 29 at Tropicana Field when the Yankees hoped to sweep past the Rays, only for Cole to allow eight runs (seven earned) in 5 ¹/₃ innings.