ARLINGTON, Texas – For six innings Monday night, Gerrit Cole looked like the ace the Yankees need in the final stretch and into October.

Then came another injury scare, but this time it was followed by a sigh of relief as the Yankees seemingly dodged a bullet in their 8-4 victory over the Rangers at Globe Life Field.

While warming up for the bottom of the seventh inning, Cole developed a cramp in his right calf while following through on his throw.

He tried several things to stop it, but to no avail. After a brief conversation with a trainer and Aaron Boone, he left the mound with the Yankees leading 7-1.

It wasn’t until the ninth inning that fans were able to breathe a sigh of relief when the Yankees announced that Cole was only suffering from cramps and that his condition would be re-evaluated on Tuesday.

“I wasn’t particularly concerned,” Cole said. “I just thought it wasn’t the right situation to keep trying to manipulate it out there. … I jogged out there, didn’t feel it. I don’t feel it walking or running around or anything.”

The reigning AL Cy Young winner, who missed the first two and a half months of the season with nerve inflammation in his elbow, had thrown six strong innings with one run and nine strikeouts before leaving the game.

Cole has now allowed three or fewer runs in six consecutive starts, a stretch in which he has a 1.85 ERA, and he appears to be on track for his next start this weekend against the Cubs.

“Obviously there was concern at the moment, but it looks like hopefully it was just that – some cramps,” Boone said.

Cole’s early exit overshadowed an otherwise strong evening for the Yankees (80-58), who won only their second game in their last six games and remain half a game ahead of the Orioles in first place in the AL East.

A resurgent Gleyber Torres led the way with three hits and two RBIs and finished the game with a diving backhand stop on a one-hopper behind second base, with the Rangers (65-73) threatening a comeback.

Torres gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the third inning with a two-run double against Jack Leiter – a former Delbarton teammate of Anthony Volpe and son of Al Leiter – before leading off a five-run sixth inning with an infield single after a dribble to third base.

Torres has hit a safe hit in 26 of his last 27 games, the last 16 of them as the leadoff batter.

“It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” said Torres, who struggled mightily in the first few months of the season. “I have an opportunity every day to play and do the right thing for the team. Do the little things, pass the baton. Especially this month, it’s not about numbers, it’s about the team. Just win the game.”

Aaron Judge, who had previously gone 4-for-23, brought Torres home with an RBI double in the sixth inning that knocked Leiter out of the game, 3-1.

The Yankees then went on the offensive against reliever Chase Anderson: Jazz Chisholm Jr. hit an RBI single and Anthony Rizzo hit a perfectly placed ground-rule double down the left field line, making it 6-1.

“It’s fun to watch us all play together so well,” said Giancarlo Stanton, who hit his 25th home run of the year in the eighth inning to make the score 8-3, making him the only active player to hit 25 home runs in at least 10 seasons.

Aside from Cole, the Yankees seemed to have been spared from a few other injury scares.

Chisholm scored when he chased a foul and ran awkwardly into the net, but he jumped right back up.

Wells suffered another misfire when he was hit by a 95 mph fastball on his right hand/wrist during the sixth-inning rally, but he also stayed in the game.

The same was true of Alex Verdugo, who appeared to point at his team after getting a groundout in the fifth inning.

“I was a little worried about Austin, but I think he made some good swings after that,” Boone said. “We’ll keep an eye on it. Jazz was OK. We’ll see what Dugie does. We’ll see what we did overnight and hopefully it’s all just little things.”