Gerrit Cole crouched behind the mound, stared at the dirt and after a 569-day absence climbed on the rubber in a major league game that mattered.

"Just let it rip downrange and see what we got," the New York Yankees ace thought to himself.

Cole allowed two hits over six shutout innings Friday night in his return from elbow ligament reconstruction surgery. He left with a 1-0 lead that the Yankees wasted in a 4-2 loss to the major-league-best Tampa Bay Rays.

"It was almost like a second debut," the 35-year-old right-hander said. "It was nice to get back in the fire."