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New York Yankees defeat KC Royals 3-1 to move onto ALCS

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The New York Yankees punched their ticket to the ALCS with a gritty 3-1 win in Game 4 of their ALDS series with the Kansas City Royals.

Gerrit Cole was in prime ace mode, pitching seven strong innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts. The bullpen handled the rest as both Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver were flawless.

New York made it very clear from the first pitch that they meant business tonight. Giancarlo Stanton’s message after Wednesday’s win in Game 3 said it all: “We need to wrap it up tomorrow.”

Wrap it up they did. Gleyber Torres smoked Michael Wacha’s first pitch for a double to center and was immediately singled home by Juan Soto.

Torres later made it 2-0 with an RBI single of his own, and Stanton kept up his playoff heroics to make it 3-0. His single snuck through a drawn-in Royals infield to score Judge.

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Speaking of the Yankee captain, his bat showed a sign of life. He led off the sixth inning with a double before scoring. Judge also drew two walks and overcame grounding into an early double play.

And yet, none of that was the game’s main story. Rather, fans were treated to ghosts of the Yankees-Royals rivalry of the 1970s. It all started in the sixth inning, when Kansas City leadoff man Michael Massey grounded to first baseman Jon Berti after a Maikel Garcia leadoff single.

Berti, in only his second career game at first, snagged the ball, stepped on the base for the out, and then fired to Anthony Volpe for the tag on Garcia. Volpe tagged Garcia on the chest, but then gave him a small shove before some condescending chest and back slaps.

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The benches cleared once Jazz Chisholm Jr., the most popular man in KC, started jawing at Garcia. Nothing escalated, but the Royals were sparked and answered with a single from Bobby Witt Jr. before Vinnie Pasquantino hammered an RBI double.

The bullpen did the rest, and the incident was just the cherry on top of a pretty solid series for Volpe. He was 1 for 4 in the game and hit a clean .250 in the series, and probably a little salty in the moment. He lined into a double-play in the Yankee half of the sixth and killed rally.

Even so, the young shortstop is working good at-bats, which is about the best the Yankees can ask of him in October. Berti also added a single and could be in line for more starts at first base while Anthony Rizzo recovers from broken fingers.

As for the ALCS, Game 1 is slated for Monday at 7:37 p.m. ET. The Yankees will face either the AL Central’s Detroit Tigers or Cleveland Guardians, and we’re now one step closer to a second Subway Series.

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