BRIDGEWATER, N.J. — Gerrit Cole finished Sunday with a flourish, but he’s not done with the minor leagues quite yet.

Pitching on four days’ rest in his second rehab start for the Double-A Somerset Patriots as he works his way back from an elbow injury in spring training, the Yankees’ ace retired the final eight batters he faced. He struck out the last two by pumping almost exclusively 95 mph fastballs.

“I definitely did get stronger as the game went on,” Cole said. “Overall, checked a lot of boxes.”

Cole threw 44 of 57 pitches for strikes over 4 ²/₃ innings and topped out at 96 mph on the unofficial stadium radar gun in a 4-2 win against the Hartford Yard Goats at TD Bank Ballpark.

The reigning AL Cy Young award winner expects to make another rehab start for either Somerset or Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, but it’s “tough to say” if more than one will be needed.

To complicate matters, both affiliates are on the road next week and dropping down to Single-A Hudson Valley just to stay local doesn’t make “any sense” because he wants to face advanced hitters.

“I would say there’s just a lot of older guys at Triple-A, so there’s more of an approach to a certain extent, depending on who you face,” Cole said. “But they have three [or] four guys over there [with Hartford] with above-major-league-average bat speed. They are all very aggressive. They put good swings on good pitches.”

Cole said his curveball, changeup and cutter were sharp, his slider wasn’t “fooling anybody” judging by hard contact and his fastball command improved as the innings progressed.

Rockies prospect Ryan Ritter pulled the sixth pitch of the game for a deep home run, but that solo shot and a line-drive single accounted for the only damage off Cole, who has not issued a walk in either rehab start.

“I thought the fastball was not very good early — just missing in bad places,” said Cole, who estimated about 50 percent fastball usage. “That definitely progressed to where we executed the last seven or eight of them in a row.”

One Cy Young winner impressed another.

Sparky Lyle — who took home the 1977 AL award as a Yankees reliever, later managed the Patriots in the independent Atlantic League for 15 years and remains a ballpark staple in an ambassador role — was impressed by the zip that Cole displayed in the fifth inning.

“Second rehab start, pretty good day, still got things to work on,” Cole said. “For back-to-back [starts], I felt pretty good. Wish I would’ve been able to crisp up the location quicker. Really, that was about it.”

Cole still wants to raise his pitch count and sharpen his command before making his Yankees’ season debut.

“I want to feel confident that if I get into some sort of a jam and have to run 25-30 pitches out, that we are still in a good spot to keep going after that,” Cole said. “The team has played so well. I want to make sure I’m in a good position to play well. Certainly I’m always up for a challenge, but it’s a group decision in that regard. Just take all the information that we have and try to see when the best time is to pull the trigger.”

About 100 fans from the crowd of 7,385 — about 1,200 more than “capacity” — lined up down the right-field line to watch Cole’s pregame bullpen.

Dressed in full Yankees uniform and spikes, Cole’s son Caden nearly caught a foul ball in the stands. Dad signed autographs after he was removed from the game.

Spencer Jones, the Yankees’ No. 2-ranked prospect, homered for the third time in his last four games to tie the score in support of Cole.

Both of Cole’s rehab starts have been against the Yard Goats, which allowed him the wrinkle of thinking about start-over-start adjustments to a lineup.

He threw to JC Escarra, who was making just his ninth start of the season at catcher after Ben Rice was promoted to Triple-A last week.

“I did think that was a nice variable and a little extra challenge,” Cole said. “I was up for it, and we did all right.”