By DAVE SKRETTA AP Sports Writer
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Gerrit Cole pitched like a postseason ace Thursday night, holding the Kansas City Royals to a single run over seven innings and sending the New York Yankees to a 3-1 victory that put them back in the American League Championship Series.
The six-time All-Star scattered six hits and struck out four before handing the ball to the New York bullpen, which dominated a tense AL Division Series. Clay Holmes tossed a perfect eighth inning and Luke Weaver breezed through the ninth, extending the scoreless streak by Yankees relievers to 15⅔ innings this postseason.
New York will play Cleveland or Detroit in the ALCS, which begins Monday at Yankee Stadium.
“Proud of these guys,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We get to go play for it now and we’re excited about that.”
Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Game 3 star Giancarlo Stanton drove in runs for the Yankees, who fittingly clinched a spot in their fourth ALCS in eight years on the road. They won 50 games away from home in the regular season, their most in 21 years.
Michael Wacha failed to get through five innings for Kansas City, allowing two runs, six hits and a walk. He didn’t get much help from a long-scuffling offense that managed just five runs total over the final three games of the series.
“In 2023, our season ended here, you know? We didn’t get in the postseason,” said Aaron Judge, who secured the final out for New York. “I remember a lot of these guys were looking out on the field, and you know, we all kind of came together and said, ‘It’s not going to happen again.’”
Kansas City did not win a home game after Sept. 8, losing nine in a row including the playoffs.
Still, it was a remarkable turnaround for a club that went from 106-loss laughingstock a year ago to making its first postseason appearance since winning the 2015 World Series. And with young stars such as Bobby Witt Jr. signed to long-term deals, there is hope in Kansas City that this was a beginning rather than an ending.
“Feel really badly for those guys in the room,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said, “because as you know, this is seven, eight months of the year that they just pour it all into it, and give every ounce of effort and energy they have.”
New York set the tone from the start, pouncing on Wacha like it did in the series opener. Torres hit the veteran right-hander’s first pitch of the game for a double, and Soto followed with an RBI single on just the third pitch of the night.
Anthony Volpe kept on the pressure with his single in the fifth. And after Alex Verdugo grounded into a forceout and Jon Berti singled to put runners on the corners, Torres lined a two-out single to make it 2-0 and put an end to Wacha’s night.
Meanwhile, Cole only seemed to get stronger as he clicked off innings.
The reigning Cy Young Award winner retired his first six batters, worked around a leadoff single in the third and retired eight more before Tommy Pham’s single in the fifth. The former UCLA and Orange Lutheran High star promptly struck out Kyle Isbel on three pitches to end that inning.
“It was a great battle,” Cole said. “Just a great battle.”
Stanton, the Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High product who hit the go-ahead homer in the eighth inning in Game 3, extended the lead to 3-0 with his single in the sixth.
Tensions that had simmered all night – and all series, after Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. called the Royals’ Game 2 win “lucky” – finally boiled over in the sixth. Volpe slapped a hard tag on Maikel Garcia at second base to complete a double play, and the Royals third baseman took umbrage with it. Players spilled out of both dugouts before order was restored.
“I just felt like (Garcia) tried to go in and injure Volpe because he was being a sore loser,” Chisholm said. “I didn’t like that. I told him that we don’t do that on this side, and I’m going to stick up for my guys.”
The near-fracas nearly ignited Kansas City, too. Witt, who had been 1 for 15 in the series, followed with a base hit and Vinnie Pasquantino – who had been 0 for 14 – had an RBI double. But with the sellout crowd of 39,012 in Kauffman Stadium whipped into a sudden frenzy, Cole got Salvador Perez to pop out lazily to second base to end the inning.
Cole’s night ended after he got Isbel to fly out to the warning track with a runner aboard to end the seventh, a deep shot to right field that would have been a tying homer had it been hit to that part of Yankee Stadium.
New York’s bullpen did the rest.
“We’re in a good place. That doesn’t mean we’re in a great place,” Stanton said. “We’re here to win. No one wants to be on the losing side of this. Imagine how Kansas City feels right now. Nobody wants to feel that way. We have an opportunity to keep it rolling, but that is understood reality, that we have to take care of business.”
The Yankees are headed to the ALCS for the 19th time to face the Guardians or Tigers, who play the decisive game of their AL Division Series on Saturday night in Cleveland. Left-hander Carlos Rodón is lined up to pitch the opener of the ALCS for New York with Cole ready to start Game 2.
The Royals head into the offseason with some momentum. Most of their key players are signed for next season or under club control, though a couple of decisions loom. Wacha could opt out of his deal after a strong season while second baseman Adam Frazier has a mutual option and outfielder Hunter Renfroe a player option for 2025.
