Perplexed is probably the right word to describe Gerrit Cole's demeanor following his rough start against the Cleveland Indians on Sunday afternoon.

After getting blown out the day before, the Yankees needed Cole to come in and shut things down. But the exact opposite happened and Cleveland ended up scoring 11 runs again as the Yanks dropped the series on their home turf.

"Pretty bad loss today. Losing the series, pretty disappointed," Cole said when asked what the team's demeanor was following the 11-1 defeat.

Simply put, this was the worst time for Cole to have one of his worst starts of the season -- and he knows it.

“I mean, I came in here to try to win a series and put it out of reach. So, yeah, definitely," he said about letting the team down.

Soft contact wasn't his friend in this one, as the first inning proved when two weak hits resulted in the Yanks leaving the inning down 2-0. Overall, Cole let up 10 hits that turned into seven runs.

“Just couldn’t get that third out and couldn’t get the ball off the bat I guess," he said. "Wasn’t falling our way, but at the same time, it’s September. It’s a crucial game and that’s too many runs to come back from. Higgy and I are thinking about it still right now and what we could’ve done better. We still don’t quite have a definitive answer. We liked a lot of the stuff that we did, but at the end of the day, it didn’t work.”

The slider was the pitch Cole didn't like last time out, but believed it was working in this one. He also noted that his hamstring, the reason he left his previous start early, wasn't an issue. Cole even said that he didn't believe he was tipping, so both he and Kyle Higashioka were trying to figure out what went wrong.

Maybe it was just not his day and the Indians cashed in on good swing selection and hit location. But Cole left the mound to boos even though he's easily been one of the best pitchers in baseball all season long.

“It’s just a bad game, man. That’s New York.”

The boos might've been more so for the Yankees' chance at the postseason. After the loss Sunday, they are now 1.5 games back of the second Wild Card spot after the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox won their respective games.

So this was quite literally the last thing the Yanks needed to happen, but nonetheless, they head into the new week looking to gain momentum down the homestretch.

Next time Cole touches the bump will be during the Red Sox series over the weekend. Who knows where the Wild Card standings will be at that point, but one thing is for sure: The Yankees need much better out of him next time out.

When he gets the ball, they expect a win. And they will definitely need one in this close postseason race.

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