In a postseason era defined by aggressive bullpen usage and pitching staff chaos, Gerrit Cole turned in a stellar seven-inning performance on Thursday night to lead the Yankees past the Royals and into the ALCS. The final score of 3-1 makes the match seem closer than it actually felt; the Royals actually only threatened once or twice all night thanks to an efficient Cole and a few scoreless relief performances.

For the second time in the series, Cole only struck out four batters in his outing, but this one was undeniably better than his shaky start in Game 1. On Thursday night, he gave up one run on six hits and didn’t walk anyone. . The Royals’ approach was pretty clear from the start: They aggressively attacked his fastball and four-seam cutter early in the count, hoping to ambush him like they did in Game 1 — when their first five balls in play were all hit. 100 mph – before he could turn to his curveball or slider. As a result, his pitch countdown was omitted; he needed just 87 pitches to complete his seven innings. The BABIP gods must have turned away from the Royals because they didn’t earn their first hit until the third inning, and only once did they score multiple hits in the same inning. As in the series opener, Kansas City made a lot of loud contact against Cole – 12 of 22 balls in the game registered an exit velocity of at least 95 mph – but this time half of those hard-hit balls were on the ground (5) or surfaced ( 1); in Game 1, all but one of his 11 hard-hit balls (out of 17 BIP) were line drives (5) or fly balls (5).

The Yankees hitters were just as aggressive when they faced Michael Wacha for the second time in this series. Gleyber Torres hit a double to left center field on the first pitch of the game, and Juan Soto brought him home with an RBI single two pitches later.

Wacha settled down after inducing a double play by Aaron Judge and advanced through the next three innings. The Yankees struck again in the fifth when Torres drove in a two-out, runscoring single that chased Wacha from the game. At that point, with runners on the corners, Soto on the docket and his team down two runs, Royals manager Matt Quatraro turned to closer Lucas Erceg to get out of the fifth-inning jam. Soto faced a second pitch change and skied to center field for the final out of the picture.

Erceg returned for the sixth inning and faced Judge, who was 1-for-12 in the series with four walks and five strikeouts; that lone hit was an 86.6 mph infield single in the Game 2 loss in New York. But this time, Judge finally shot one forward and hit a double into the left-center field gap. Catcher Austin Wells moved Judge to third base with a groundout to second, bringing up Giancarlo Stanton, whose career 160 wRC+ in the postseason ranks 12th among players with at least 100 playoff plate appearances. He seared a 186.9 mph single up the middle to drive in the third and final run of the game for the Yankees.

Tensions rose a bit in the bottom of the sixth inning, after the Yankees turned a 3-6 double play and Maikel Garcia took Anthony Volpe’s hit at second.

After the play, Garcia began chomping at the bit with Jazz Chisholm Jr., emptying both benches and depleting their bullpens. No punches were thrown; they usually circled second base for a few minutes. After the match, Chisholm said he felt like Garica was sliding too fast into second place and standing up for Volpe.

“I just felt like he was trying to injure Volpe because he was a sore loser. He talked a lot on Instagram and Twitter and stuff. I do the same thing, but I’m not going to try to hurt someone winning a match, and I didn’t like that. So I told him we don’t do that on this side, and that I will always stand up for my boys.

Chisholm became a lightning rod during this series. First, he scored the go-ahead run in Game 1 on a controversial safe call on his successful steal of second base. Then, after the Yankees’ loss in Game 2, he said the Royals “just got lucky.” That earned him a cold reception in Kansas City for Game 3 on Wednesday, and the booing continued into Game 4. I’m sure this incident won’t help his reputation among Kansas City’s loyal fans.

After all the noise died down, the Royals finally got on the board with a pair of two-out hits. Bobby Witt Jr. singled to right and then scored from first base on a long double off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino.

The Royals gave the Yankees one last scare in the seventh; with two outs and a runner on first, Kyle Isbel launched a 350-foot fly ball to deep right field that fell just before leaving the yard. The batted ball had an expected batting average of .510 and would have been a game-tying home run in 24 ballparks, including Yankee Stadium, but Kauffman Stadium was not one of them. Soto made the catch against the wall. Inning over.

Apparently Cole’s night was too. He finished with just six swings and misses total, five on his four-seamer and one on his curveball. More than half of the pitches he threw were four-seaters, but he didn’t really have good command of the pitch; only 52% of his four-seaters were in the offensive zone, and most of his misses with them were high. It didn’t really matter as the Royals were unwilling to be patient and the rest of Cole’s repertoire was more than effective.

An interesting note about Cole’s pitch mix in Game 4: It was the first time in his Major League career, which spanned 336 starts in both the regular season and the playoffs, that he didn’t throw a slider. His breaking ball usage dropped a bit this year, from just over 20% last year to just 14.6% this season, but it’s still quite surprising to see him completely turn away from one of his best swings -and-miss offers. in a big play-off game.

After Cole left the game, Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver shut down the Royals in the eighth and ninth innings. Weaver earned his third save of the series, and the Yankees relief corps finished the ALDS without allowing an earned run over 15 2/3 innings.

For the Royals, this series caps off their incredible turnaround season. It’s a disappointment for them, though they enter the offseason with some hope that their winning ways will continue. They improved by 30 wins this year, they signed a long-term MVP candidate to build around, and their youngsters now have some postseason experience under their belts.

But this series has also exposed some of the flaws they need to address this offseason. Witt Jr. collected just two hits in the series, preventing him from making a major impact on proceedings, while Pasquantino’s RBI double on Thursday was his first and only hit of the series. That’s not to blame them; during a short series, your best players sometimes go cold. Sure, the Royals got some production from other members of their lineup earlier in the series, and Tommy Pham collected three hits in Game 4, but this is an offense where 40-year-old Yuli Gurriel – who has an 82 wRC+ over the last three seasons – fifth at bat. The Royals simply didn’t have enough offensive firepower to compete with New York.

With the win, the Yankees advance to the ALCS for the second time in the last three years and the fourth time in the last eight. But despite their stellar performances for the better part of a decade, they haven’t reached the World Series since winning it all in 2009. To get there, they’ll have to beat the winner of the Guardians-Tigers series, set for a win-or-go-home Game 5 on Saturday night. The Yankees are the best remaining American League team; we’ll see if that’s enough to win the pennant.