KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Gerrit Cole pitched like a postseason ace on Thursday night, holding the Kansas City Royals to a single run over seven innings and giving the New York Yankees a 3-1 win that sent them back to the American League Championship Series.

The six-time All-Star handed out six hits and struck out four before handing the ball to New York’s bullpen, which dominated a tense AL Division Series. Clay Holmes pitched a perfect eighth inning and Luke Weaver stormed through the ninth inning, extending the Yankees relievers’ scoreless streak this postseason to 15⅔ innings.

New York will play Cleveland or Detroit in the ALCS starting Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

“Proud of these guys,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We can play for it now and we’re happy about it.”

Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Game 3 star Giancarlo Stanton drove in runs for the Yankees, who fittingly secured a spot in their fourth ALCS in eight years on the road. They won 50 away games during the regular season, the most in 21 years.

Michael Wacha failed to last five innings for Kansas City, allowing two runs, six hits and a walk. A sluggish offense that managed just five runs total in the final three games of the series didn’t help him much.

“In 2023, our season here ended, you know? We didn’t make it to the postseason,” said Aaron Judge, who helped New York reach the finals. “I remember a lot of these guys looking on the field, and you know, we all kind of came together and said, ‘This isn’t going to happen again.'”

Kansas City has not won a home game since September 8th and has lost nine straight games including the playoffs.

Still, it was a remarkable turnaround for a club that went from 106 losses a year ago to making its first postseason appearance since winning the 2015 World Series. And with young stars like Bobby Witt Jr. signing long-term deals, there’s hope in Kansas City that this was a beginning rather than an end.

“I really feel sorry for the guys in the room,” Royals manager Matt Quatraro said, “because as you know, seven, eight months of the year, they just give it their all and give every ounce of effort and energy that they have .”

New York set the tone from the start and, like in the series opener, pounced on Wacha. Torres hit the veteran right-hander’s first pitch for a double, and Soto followed with an RBI single on just the third pitch of the night.

Anthony Volpe kept the pressure on with his single in the fifth. And after Alex Verdugo grounded into a forceout and Jon Berti hit a single to put runners on the corners, Torres added a two-out single to make it 2-0 and end Wacha’s night.

Meanwhile, Cole only seemed to get stronger the more innings he completed.

The reigning Cy Young Award winner retired his first six batters, worked around a leadoff single in the third and retired eight more in the fifth before Tommy Pham singled. Cole immediately struck out Kyle Isbel in three pitches to end the inning.

Stanton, who hit the go-ahead home run in the eighth inning of Game 3, extended the lead to 3-0 with his single in the sixth inning.

Tensions that had been simmering all night – and all series after Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. called the Royals’ Game 2 win “lucky” – finally boiled over in Game 6. Volpe hit Maikel Garcia hard at second base to complete a double play, and the Royals third baseman took offense. Players streamed out of both dugouts before order was restored.

The near-riot also nearly set Kansas City on fire. Witt, who had gone 1-for-15 in the series, followed with a base hit and Vinnie Pasquantino – who had gone 0-for-14 – had an RBI double. But as the sellout crowd of 39,012 at Kauffman Stadium suddenly became excited, Cole got Salvador Perez to jump to second base to end the inning.

Cole’s night ended after he got Isbel to fly to the warning track with a runner on board to end the seventh, a shot from deep into right field that would have been the game-winning home run if he had scored in that part of Yankee Stadium would have been hit.

New York’s bullpen did the rest.