Yankees' Gerrit Cole proves again he's ultimate series closer

KANSAS CITY, MO. — Three pitches into Thursday night's game, the New York Yankees gave Gerrit Cole all of the fuel he would need to eventually shut the door on the upstart Kansas City Royals.

Gleyber Torres doubled on the first pitch of the game, and Juan Soto followed with an RBI single off Kansas City starter Michael Wacha just two pitches later to give the Yankees a quick 1-0 lead and soak some of the energy out of a buzzing Kauffman Stadium. That lead would hold as the Yankees moved on to the American League Championship Series with a 3-1 victory over the Royals on Thursday night.

The top-seeded Yankees, champions of the AL East, will host the winner of the Cleveland Guardians-Detroit Tigers ALDS matchup beginning on Monday night.

Cole quieted the Kansas City lineup in Game 4, and the outing continued a streak of dominance for him when pitching in postseason series-clinching games. This was his sixth career start in that scenario, and he has now allowed three runs or fewer in five of those six starts and two runs or fewer in four of those outings.

In media availability on Wednesday afternoon, Cole said that the Royals, "don't walk much and they don't strike out much, so the ball is in play a lot." Those words proved prophetic as the 34-year-old right-hander scattered six hits (with three of those being singles off the bat of Tommy Pham) over his 7.0 innings of work and struck out four while not giving up a walk.

Cole ran into his only trouble of the night after the benches cleared following a late slide at second base by Kansas City's Maikel Franco that completed a double play in the bottom of the sixth inning. The delay to restore order on the field with both benches and bullpens emptying seemed to ignite the Royals. Following the incident, Cole allowed a single to Bobby Witt Jr. before Vinnie Pasquantino put the Royals on the board with an RBI double.

With the crowd roaring and Salvador Perez at the plate, Cole got the veteran catcher to pop up to second base to end the scoring threat.

While Cole was dominant in his starting role, Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver continued to shine in the bullpen to close out the contest. Kansas City did not score an earned run in 14.2 combined innings against New York relievers in the ALDS, including two scoreless frames from Holmes and Weaver to finish off the series. 

The duo combined to fan three of the six batters they faced, including Weaver striking out the first two Royals in the ninth as part of his third career postseason save.