KANSAS CITY, Mo. — In the land of the Royals, Gerrit Cole and the Yankees were kings.
They still have eight wins to go before they can crown themselves champions, but their ace helped them get one round closer Thursday night.
Cole tossed seven strong innings of one-run ball and the Yankees gave him enough offense while being kept in the park to beat the Royals, 3-1, and win the ALDS in four games at Kauffman Stadium.
The Yankees advanced to their fourth ALCS in the last eight years, but unlike the other three times, they will not meet the Astros.
Instead, they will host the winner of the Guardians and Tigers — who will play Game 5 of their ALDS on Saturday — on Monday night in The Bronx.
After Cole gave the Yankees their best outing from any starter this series, the bullpen finished off a dominant ALDS with Clay Holmes throwing a perfect eighth inning and Luke Weaver doing the same in the ninth for his third save.
That made it 15 ²/₃ innings without allowing an earned run from their relievers this series.
The Yankees came into Game 4 having gone 3-for-25 with runners in scoring position through the first three games before going 3-for-10 on Thursday to nail down the series.
They jumped out to a 1-0 lead three pitches into the game on an RBI single from Juan Soto, then got another from Gleyber Torres in the fifth and the red-hot Giancarlo Stanton in the sixth.
The benches cleared in the bottom of the sixth inning as the Yankees completed a double play, with Anthony Volpe slapping a tag on Maikel Garcia at second base, which came with an incidental forearm.
Garcia appeared to take issue with that, then lingered and began to exchange words with Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was Public Enemy No. 1 at Kauffman Stadium for saying the Royals got “lucky” in their Game 2 win.
As players from the dugouts and bullpens spilled onto the field, Cole walked toward Garcia before getting held back by his catcher, Austin Wells.
No punches were thrown and eventually tensions dissipated with the teams heading back to their respective sides.
Before the inning was over, the Royals finally got to Cole for a run on Vinnie Pasquantino’s RBI double that cut the deficit to 3-1.
Salvador Perez then came up as the potential tying run with Kauffman Stadium ready to explode, but Cole got him to pop out to end the threat.
The Royals tried to rally again in the seventh — with Tommy Pham recording his third hit in three at-bats off Cole — but Kyle Isbel came up just a few feet short of a potential game-tying home run as Cole walked off the mound fired up.
The Yankees jumped out to a 1-0 lead just three pitches into the game.
Torres led off by smacking Michael Wacha’s first pitch into the gap for a double before Soto roped a single through the right side to drive Torres in for the quick strike.
Cole was coming off a Game 1 start in which he gave up four runs (three earned) across five-plus innings.
The Royals had jumped on his fastball, even for some loud outs early, and the right-hander knew he had to be sharper seeing them again five days later.
It was evident that Cole was in for a better night from the get go as he struck out a pair in a quiet first inning and mostly cruised from there.
The Yankees doubled their lead in the fifth and knocked Wacha out of the game in the process.
Volpe continued his strong series by leading off with a single smoked past the dive of shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.
One out later, Jon Berti singled to put runners on the corners for Torres, who ripped a single the other way for the 2-0 lead.
Aaron Judge picked up his first extra-base hit of the series in the sixth inning, drilling a double to the gap before moving to third on Wells’ groundout.
Stanton, the Game 3 hero, came up next and continued his red-hot series, lacing a single up the middle to make it a 3-0 lead.