In a postseason era marked by aggressive bullpen usage and pitching chaos, Gerrit Cole delivered a fantastic seven-inning performance Thursday night to lead the Yankees past the Royals and into the ALCS. The final score of 3-1 makes the game seem closer than it actually felt; Thanks to an efficient Cole and two scoreless relief efforts, the Royals were only dangerous once or twice all night.

For the second time in the series, Cole only had four strikeouts in his outing, but it 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 four-seam fastball and cutter early in the count, hoping to ambush him like they did in Game 1 – when their first five balls of the game were all over the ball hit 100 miles per hour – before he could turn to his curveball or slider. This kept his pitch countdown low; he only needed 87 pitches to complete his seven innings. The BABIP gods must have turned away from the Royals because they didn’t get their first hit until the third inning and only collected multiple hits in the same inning once. As in the series opener, Kansas City had plenty of loud contact against Cole – 12 of the 22 balls he fielded recorded an exit velocity of at least 95 mph – but this time half of those hard-hit balls were on either 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 facing Michael Wacha for the second time in the series. Gleyber Torres belted a double to left-center field on the first pitch of the game, and Juan Soto brought it home with an RBI single two pitches later.

Wacha calmed down after inducing a double play by Aaron Judge and walked the next three innings. The Yankees struck again in the fifth when Torres brought in a two-out, run-scoring single that knocked Wacha out of the game. Just then, with runners on the corners, Soto ahead and his team trailing by two runs, Royals manager Matt Quatraro turned to closer Lucas Erceg to get out of the jam in the fifth inning. Soto got a second pitch change and slid it to center field for the final out of the frame.

Erceg returned for the sixth time to face Judge, who went 1-for-12 in the series with four walks and five strikeouts; That lone hit was an 86.6 mph infield single in New York’s loss in Game 2. This time, however, Judge finally managed to blast a double into the left-center field gap. Catcher Austin Wells moved Judge to second on a groundout, bringing in Giancarlo Stanton, whose career 160 wRC+ in the postseason ranks 12th among players with at least 100 playoff plate appearances. He hit a 116.9 mph single up the middle, securing the Yankees’ third and final run of the game.

Tensions rose somewhat in the bottom of the sixth after the Yankees went 3-6 on a double play and Maikel Garcia struggled with Anthony Volpe’s substitution at second.

After the game, Garcia began arguing with Jazz Chisholm Jr., causing both benches to clear and their bullpens to empty. No blows were thrown; Most of the time they ran around second base for a few minutes. After the game, Chisholm said he felt Garica moved too far into second and stood up for Volpe.

“I just felt like he was trying to hurt 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 if they win a game, and I didn’t like that. So I told him we’re not going to do that on this side and I’m always going to stand up for my guys.”

Chisholm became a lightning rod in this series. First, he scored the go-ahead run in Game 1 after 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 gave him a cold reception in Game 3 in Kansas City on Wednesday, and the boos continued in Game 4. I’m sure this incident will not help his reputation with Kansas City fans.

After the hustle and bustle died down, the Royals finally made it onto the field with a couple of two-out hits. Bobby Witt Jr. hit a single to right and then hit a long double off the bat of Vinnie Pasquantino from the start.

The Royals gave the Yankees one final scare in the seventh game; With two outs and a runner on first, Kyle Isbel threw a 370-foot fly ball to right field that narrowly failed to leave the yard. The batted ball had an expected batting average of .510 and would have been a game-winning home run in 24 stadiums, including Yankee Stadium, but Kauffman Stadium was not among them. Soto managed to catch up against the wall. Inning over.

Turns out Cole’s night was like that too. He finished with just six total swings and misses, five with his four-seamer and one with his curveball. More than half of the pitches he threw were four-seaters, but he didn’t really control the pitch very well; only 52% of his fours were in the strike zone, and most of his misses in that zone were high. It didn’t matter much as the Royals weren’t willing 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 included 336 starts in both the regular season and playoffs, that he didn’t throw a slider. His use of this breaking ball has declined somewhat this year, from just over 20% last year to just 14.6% this season, but it’s still quite surprising that he’s completely separated from one of his best swing-and-play. Miss offers averts in a huge playoff game.

After Cole left the game, Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver shut out 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 through 15 2/3 innings.

For the Royals, this series ends their incredible turnaround season. It’s a disappointment for them, although they enter the offseason with hope that their winning streak will continue. They improved by 30 wins this year, they signed a long-term MVP candidate to build on, and their young players now have some postseason experience under their belt.

But this series also exposed some of the weaknesses that need to be addressed in the offseason. Witt Jr. only had two hits in the series, preventing him from having much of an impact on the game, while Pasquantino’s RBI double on Thursday was his first and only hit of the series. This is not to blame them; During a short series it sometimes happens that the best players go cold. Sure, the Royals got a bit of production from other members of their lineup early in the series, and Tommy Pham scored three goals in Game 4, but this is an offense that has struggled for 40-year-old Yuli Gurriel – who has an 82 WRC+ in the last three seasons – fifth in batting. 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 fourth time in the last eight years. But despite nearly a decade of excellence, they haven’t reached the World Series since their outright victory in 2009. To get there, they have to beat the winner of the Guardians-Tigers series, which will be win-or-win in Game 5 on Saturday night. The Yankees are the best remaining team in the American League; We’ll see if that’s enough to win the pennant.