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 move one round closer on Thursday evening.

Cole pitched seven strong innings of one-run ball and the Yankees gave him enough offense while keeping him 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 won’t face the Astros.

Instead, they will host the winner of the Guardians and Tigers – who will play Game 5 of their ALDS on Saturday – in The Bronx on Monday night.

After Cole gave the Yankees their best performance of any starter in this series, the bullpen capped off a dominant ALDS, with Clay Holmes pitching 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 in the 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 clinch the series.

They jumped 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 delivering a tag to Maikel Garcia at second base that was accompanied by an incidental forearm.

Garcia seemed to take issue with that, then hung back and began exchanging words with Jazz Chisholm Jr., who was public enemy No. 1 at Kauffman Stadium for saying the Royals were “lucky” with their Game 2 win.

As players rushed onto the field from the dugouts and bullpens, Cole walked toward Garcia before being stopped by his catcher, Austin Wells.

No punches were thrown and eventually tensions subsided as the teams returned to their respective squads.

Before the inning was over, the Royals finally got to Cole for a run on Vinnie Pasquantino’s RBI double, which cut the deficit to 3-1.

Salvador Perez then emerged as the potential equalizer, with Kauffman Stadium ready to explode, but Cole popped him 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 fell just a few feet short of a potential game-tying home run as Cole walked down the mound and fired. upwards.

The Yankees took a 1-0 lead just three pitches into the game.

Torres started off by hitting Michael Wacha’s first pitch into the gap for a double, before Soto singled 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) over five-plus innings.

The Royals had jumped on his fastball, even though there were some loud pops early, and the right-hander knew he had to be sharper to face them again five days later.

It was clear that Cole was in for a better night from the start, as he struck out a pair in a quiet first inning and mostly took it from there.

The Yankees doubled their lead in the fifth, eliminating Wacha from the game.

Volpe continued his strong run by leading off with a single past the dive of shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.

One out later, Jon Berti singled to put runners on the corners for Torres, who singled the other way for the 2-0 lead.

Aaron Judge picked up his first extra-base hit of the series in the sixth inning, hitting a double to the gap before advancing to third on a grounder by Wells.

Stanton, the hero of Game 3, came up next and continued his red-hot run, hitting a single up the middle to make it a 3-0 lead.