Gerrit Cole shuts down Royals, pushes Yankees back to ALCS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It was shooting time, and the person who mattered most was nowhere to be seen. The New York Yankees had just dispatched the Kansas City Royals from the postseason and advanced to the American League Championship Series with a 3-1 victory Thursday night, and all but one person gathered on the mound at Kauffman Stadium to commemorate the moment. So they started chanting his name.

“Ger-rit Co-le,” they repeated, with clap, clap, clap in between, the same chant that Yankees fans sang along in the immediate aftermath of the win. And when Gerrit Cole, who had been brought to New York specifically for moments like these, finally arrived, the Yankees erupted in cheers and caught the effects of a series that made them look as dangerous as they had in years.

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

“We played a really good type of baseball in this Series,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.

In Game 4, it started with Cole, the 34-year-old right-hander who missed the first two-and-a-half months of the season with elbow issues. From the first inning, when he lofted a 98-mph fastball, to his final out, when Kansas City’s Kyle Isbell sent a 97-mph heater to the warning track, Cole invoked his Cy Young self. His teammates had seen him in the wake of their 3-2 win the day before and predicted Cole’s old outing by his look.

“It’s an insight,” Yankees shortstop Jose Trevino said. “He had a night (Wednesday) after the last game. I told him, ‘I’ve seen those eyes before, Ace. I’ve seen those eyes before.’ “I mean, he was ready.”

New York punted Cole to a 1-0 lead three pitches into the game when Gleyber Torres doubled on the first pitch off Royals shortstop Michael Wacha and Juan Soto drove him in with a single two pitches later. Torres drove in the Yankees’ second run in the fifth inning, launching a single to right that scored Alex Verdugo and chased Wacha out of the game.

Meanwhile, Cole continued to cruise, allowing just two hits — both to Tommy Pham — through five innings. The sixth provided more of the great baseball style Boone talked about. With Royals third baseman Michael Garcia on first after a single, leadoff hitter Michael Massey smashed Cole’s curveball to first base. John Berti, who had never played first base before the second game of the series and was forced to do so by an injury to Anthony Rizzo, fielded it, stepped up to first to force, hurried and fired a seed to ground out Anthony Volpe, who tagged Garcia for a double play.

The slide and tag were steady, and when Garcia stood, he looked toward Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm, who had drawn the wrath of Kansas City fans — and Garcia on social media — for calling the Royals’ Game 2 victory “lucky.” When Chisholm started talking to Garcia, the benches and bullpen emptied, and the umpires had to separate the two sides.

“He should know he did the wrong thing because he was a sore loser,” Chisholm told ESPN. “For him to come as hard as he did – that’s painful for a loser. We don’t do that here. I would never do anything like that. I would never slide into a player. No player has ever complained about me trying. I hit them on the field, and I can’t stand That, and I’ll 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 gets hurt, we have to go find another shortstop we’re not going to do that with Bobby Witt Jr. so I expect an apology from him “If he doesn’t, he’s a sore loser.”

“I don’t have anything against him, I just saw that he said something. I don’t know what he said, I just saw that he said something,” Garcia told reporters through an interpreter.

Unfortunate events led to the revitalization of Kansas City. Witt, the Royals star who had struggled during the Series, hit a two-run single to right field, and Vinny Pasquantino drove him home with a double into the left-center field gap that cut Kansas City’s deficit to 3-1.

Boone stuck with Cole in the seventh inning and was about to regret it. Isbell’s drive to right field could have been a home run on 24 of 30 major league pitches — “My heart skipped a beat,” Boone said afterward — but Coffman’s big dimensions saved Cole, who allowed six hits, And he didn’t walk. The batter struck out four over 87 pitches.

He conceded to Clay Holmes, who pitched a scoreless eighth, and Luke Weaver, the former Royal who saved all three Division Series victories for the Yankees. They celebrated on the field and then retired to the clubhouse, where they sprayed champagne, drank beer and wondered if this was the team that would break the 14-year championship drought that, as designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said, leads these Yankees.

“The weight of waiting since 2009,” said Stanton, who followed up his Game 3 heroics with two more hits in Game 4. “You can’t escape reality, so you know what’s at stake, you know what we have to do so, it’s not about ratings, it’s not about who’s supposed to do this and that, we’ve got to go out and do it every night.”

If they do as well as they did in the Division Series, the Yankees will be tough. Their relievers threw 15⅔ scoreless innings. Their hitters realized that patience is baseball’s ultimate virtue, and they drew 27 walks in four games. They also know enough to know that one great chain doesn’t make a perfect ring.

“There’s a lot of baseball left,” Cole said. “I mean we’re obviously confident, right? We’re focused. We’re trying to improve the type of baseball we’re playing as we continue to get deeper into October. Even when you’re nervous, I feel the same way, this is your job, you’ve got to go after the ball no matter what.” What you have.

It turns out what the Yankees have is more than just pitching for Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. Soto pitched well in the Series, and after struggling early, Judge hit a double and walked two in game four. With one more American League Central team left to beat the Yankees to get back to the World Series, Judge said, “There’s something ‘special here. I think we’ve got a little bit of the ghost from the old ballpark, and a little bit of magic there, too.”

Others are thinking about the possibility of something bigger happening. Two teams advanced to the League Championship Series, both from New York. And with all the connections between New York’s baseball clubs — former Yankees coach Carlos Mendoza runs the Mets while Yankees’ Luis Severino and Harrison Bader play for them — both know they’ve made four wins out of something that only happened once.

“I’ve been saying that, texting with Bader a lot,” Rizzo said. “Subway Series Show.”