ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — This is what it was supposed to look like.

Opening a late-season series against their division rival Rays, the Yankees put together a strong offensive attack, with DJ LeMahieu crushing a pair of home runs, and again got a dominant start from Gerrit Cole, who threw 7 ²/₃ innings of two-run ball.

Instead of the end result being critical to the AL East standings and playoff chase, however, all the Yankees’ 6-2 win did was pull them back to four games under .500.

They remained in the basement of the division, 15 games behind the second-place Rays.

With just their second win in their past 12 games, the Yankees (62-66) provided a glimpse of what could have been with the kind of all-around effort that has too often been missing this season.

“Tonight was a good night,” said Cole, who matched a season-high with 11 strikeouts and no walks while lowering his league-leading ERA to 2.95. “What’s in the past is in the past and tomorrow we gotta win a game. But tonight, we had to take care of the game and get the series off on a good foot, which we did.”

Cole, who has been the Yankees’ most consistent performer all year, was terrific while giving up just three hits and only one earned run. Coming off arguably his worst start of the season, last Saturday, when he gave up six runs in four innings against the Red Sox, Cole got his Cy Young Award chase back on track with a strong effort against the Rays (78-52).

“As good a year as he’s had, that might be right up there with as good as he’s been,” manager Aaron Boone said.

During a season in which the rotation has mostly crumbled around him, Cole has now given up two runs or fewer in 20 of his 27 starts.

Though many of Cole’s gems have been wasted, the Yankees made sure the latest one resulted in his 11th win.

The ace was locked into an early pitchers’ duel with Rays right-hander Zach Eflin (six innings, two runs, 11 strikeouts) before the Yankees pulled away with an 11-hit night.

LeMahieu led the way with his pair of solo home runs.

The first came in the fifth inning, putting the Yankees ahead for good, and the second padded their lead to 6-1 in the eighth inning.

The veteran infielder has now hit three home runs in his past three games, after hitting three home runs in the previous 70 games.

In between LeMahieu homers, the Yankees got an RBI single from Everson Pereira, an RBI double from Gleyber Torres and a two-run double from Giancarlo Stanton.

Cole took care of the rest.

The right-hander bounced back from a rare rough outing against the Red Sox, getting help from a friend he would not name (“He’s probably going to be in the Hall of Fame one day,” is all Cole would say) on some mechanical adjustments that paid off on Friday.

With his latest strong effort, Cole continued to build his case for the AL Cy Young, which would be the first of his career.

“I don’t want to get distracted,” Cole said. “It’s not something that I’ve ever thought about through my whole career, so I’m just sticking with what I’ve done in the past. … It’d mean a lot, but I gotta shower this off and get ready for Detroit next week. That’s kind of all I know how to do.”

While the final five weeks of the season were supposed to be about playoff positioning and the like, in the absence of a miracle, Cole’s Cy Young chase will still be worth watching.

“I’m locked in all the time, but these last couple outings playing on defense when he’s pitching, you really want to lock in for him,” LeMahieu said. “He’s doing something special out there this year.”