KANSAS CITY, Missouri — It was picture time, and the most important person was nowhere in sight. The New York Yankees had just knocked the Kansas City Royals out of the postseason and advanced to the American League Championship Series with a 3-1 win on Thursday night, and all but one person gathered on the mound at Kauffman Stadium to watch it moment to commemorate. So they started chanting his name.

“Ger-rit Co-le,” they repeated, with a clap-clap-clap in between, the same chant that Yankees fans had serenaded him with immediately after the win. And when Gerrit Cole, brought to New York specifically for moments like this, finally arrived, the Yankees erupted in celebration, truly catching the aftermath of a series that made them look as dangerous as they have in years.

Cole stifled the Royals for seven innings, allowing one run in a Game 4 victory that was similar to their win the night before: excellent pitching, strong defense and enough hitting to advance to their 19th ALCS. The AL’s best team during the regular season barely faltered in its division series, stealing two games in Kansas City to secure its spot in the ALCS, with Game 1 on Monday night at Yankee Stadium against the winner of the Detroit-Cleveland ALDS Game 5 on Saturday.

“We played really good baseball in this series,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

It started in Game 4 with Cole, the 34-year-old right-hander who missed the first two and a half months of the season with elbow problems. From the first inning, when he threw 98 mph fastballs, to his final out, when Kansas City’s Kyle Isbel sent a 97 mph heater to the warning track, Cole conjured up his Cy Young self. Teammates had seen him after their 3-2 win the day before and his look predicted a vintage outing from Cole.

“It’s a piercing look,” Yankees catcher Jose Trevino said. “And he had it (Wednesday) night, after the last out. I thought, ‘I’ve seen those eyes before, Ace. I’ve seen those eyes before.’ I mean, he was ready.

New York gave Cole a 1-0 lead three pitches into the game when Gleyber Torres doubled off Royals starter Michael Wacha’s first pitch and Juan Soto led him in with a single two pitches later. Torres drove in the Yankees’ second run in the fifth inning, blasting a single into right field that scored Alex Verdugo and chased Wacha from the game.

Meanwhile, Cole continued to pace, allowing just two hits in five innings – both to Tommy Pham. The sixth offered more of the great brand of baseball Boone spoke of. With Royals third baseman Maikel Garcia at first on a leadoff single, leadoff hitter Michael Massey hit a Cole curveball to first base. Jon Berti, who had never played first base before Game 2 of the series and was forced there due to an injury to Anthony Rizzo, caught it, stepped to first for the force out, turned around and fired a seed, to Stopping Anthony Volpe, who tagged out Garcia for a double play.

Both the slide and the tag were solid, and as Garcia stood up, he glanced at Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm, who had drawn the ire of Kansas City fans – and Garcia on social media – because he called the Royals’ Game 2 win. happy.” When Chisholm started talking to Garcia, the benches and bullpens emptied and the referees had to separate the sides.

“He should know he did the wrong thing because he was a sore loser,” Chisholm told ESPN. “To come in as hard as he came in – that’s bad loser stuff. We don’t do that here. I would never do something like that. I would never slide into a player. No player has ever complained that I tried to hurt them on the field and I won’t stand for that and I will always support my boys. So when he got up, I saw him and Volpe talking, but I don’t take that lightly because if he made it hurt, we’d have to find another shortstop. We wouldn’t do that to Bobby Witt Jr. But if he doesn’t, that’s fine sore loser.

Through an interpreter, Garcia told reporters: “I have nothing against him, I just saw him say something. I don’t know what he said, I just saw him do it.”

The conflict revitalized Kansas City. Witt, the Royals’ star who had struggled during the series, hit a two-out single to right field, and Vinnie Pasquantino brought him home with a double into the left-center field gap, cutting Kansas City’s deficit to 3-1 .

Boone stuck with Cole in the seventh game – and was on the verge of regretting it. Isbel’s foray into right field would have been a home run in 24 of 30 major league ballparks – “My heart skipped a beat,” Boone said afterward – but Kauffman’s big size saved Cole, who allowed six hits but didn’t score a single one batter and struck out four over 87 pitches.

He left Clay Holmes, who pitched a scoreless eighth, and Luke Weaver, the former Royal, who gave the Yankees all three wins in the division series. They celebrated on the field and then retreated to the clubhouse, where they shot champagne and drank beer and wondered if this could be the team that could break the 14-year championship drought that, designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said, drives these Yankees.

“The burden of waiting since 2009,” said Stanton, who followed his Game 3 heroics with two more goals in Game 4. “You can’t run away from reality, so you know what’s at stake, you know what we have to do.” So it’s not about rankings, it’s not about who should do this and that. We have to go out and do it every night.

If they do like they did in the division series, the Yankees will be a tough opponent. Their relievers pitched 15 2/3 scoreless innings. Their batters, recognizing that patience is baseball’s greatest virtue, drew 27 walks in four games. They also know enough to know that a great series doesn’t make a ring.

“There’s still so much baseball left,” Cole said. “I mean, we’re obviously confident, right? We are focused. We’re trying to improve the type of baseball we play as we move deeper into October. Even if you’re at the end, you That’s your job, no matter what you have.

As it turns out, what the Yankees have is more than just the Aaron Judge and Juan Soto show. Soto played well in the series, and after struggling early, Judge belted a double and walked twice in Game 4. With one more American League Central team left that the Yankees had to beat to return to the World Series, Judge said, “There’s something special here, I think, a little bit of the spirit of the old stadium, but also a a bit of magic.

Others ponder the potential for something even bigger. Two teams made it to their championship series, and both are from New York. And for all the connections between the New York baseball clubs – former Yankees bench coach Carlos Mendoza manages the Mets while new Yankees Luis Severino and Harrison Bader play for them – they both know it’s just four wins from something that only happened once.

“I said it and texted a lot with Bader,” Rizzo said. “Manifesting a Subway Series.”