KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Giancarlo Stanton hit a go-ahead home run in the eighth inning amid a bullpen battle, and the New York Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals 3-2 in Game 3 of their AL Division series at Kauffman Stadium on Wednesday night.

Stanton finished the game with three hits, drove in two runs and stole a base for the first time in four years for the Yankees, who will turn to six-time All-Star pitcher Gerrit Cole on Thursday night with a chance to win the American League championship to achieve series.

The Royals used four relievers before Kris Bubic took over for the eighth time. The left-hander struck out Austin Wells before Stanton hit his 3-1 pitch nearly 420 feet to left, giving New York the lead.

The Royals tried to counter Luke Weaver in the bottom half by getting Bobby Witt Jr.’s first hit of the series and a two-out single from franchise star Salvador Perez. Weaver recovered to get Yuli Gurriel to fly out to end the threat, and he also walked the ninth to get the save and cap 4 1/3 scoreless innings by the New York bullpen.

The Yankees won despite another frustrating night in the postseason for MVP front-runner Aaron Judge. He went 0-for-4 with a walk and is now 1-for-11 with just one infield single in three games against the Royals.

It helped that the tough Yankees drew nine walks Wednesday night, giving them 22 for the series.

It was the K’s first playoff game in 3,268 days, since the Royals defeated the Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series. A few days later they won their first title in 30 years in New York.

Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer was on hand to deliver the first pitch in front of a crowd that included Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

The Yankees had some good at-bats against Seth Lugo’s dizzying string of nine pitches, but they had nothing to show for it early on.

Juan Soto flied out to center in the first inning, which would have been the equivalent of a 17-furlong home run. Judge followed with a liner caught by Witt at shortstop that had an exit velocity of 114 mph. And in the third, Gleyber Torres hit a ball to the warning track in right, shortly after a review confirmed his potential RBI fumble down the line had drawn a foul.

The Yankees prevailed in the fourth on Stanton’s double – Soto scored from the start, although he might have been eliminated if Witt had made a better relay throw to the plate. And in the fifth, Soto added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

The Royals answered with two in the fifth. Kyle Isbel got them on the board with a two-out double to left, and Michael Massey ripped a sinking liner that somehow missed Soto’s glove to right, leading to an RBI triple.

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt was beaten in both runs on four hits and a walk in 4 2/3 innings. Lugo scored five goals for Kansas City, allowing two goals and scoring four goals against the team that led the league in free passes this season.

NEXT

Yankees: Cole (8-5, 3.41 ERA) returns to the mound on Thursday night. He allowed four runs – three earned – over five innings in Saturday night’s opener but failed to make a decision in New York’s 6-5 win.

Royals: RHP Michael Wacha (13-8, 3.35 ERA) will face Cole again on Saturday after pitching just four innings. He allowed three runs, but was long gone by the time the Yankees scored the go-ahead run in the seventh.

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb