Yankees should be encouraged they reached ALCS without their best effort in four-game ALDS win over Royals
Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) and fellow teammtes celebrate in the locker room afterr winning Game 4 of the ALDS against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024. Credit: Newsday/William Perlman
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Everything is coming up Yankees.
Imagine how it’ll look when — or if — they start firing on all cylinders in this postseason.
The Yankees moved on to the ALCS on Thursday night by ousting the Royals in Game 4 of the ALDS with a 3-1 victory at Kauffman Stadium.
The Yankees got to taste and get doused in champagne for the third time this year (first when they clinched a playoff spot, next when they won the AL East).
Winning pitcher Gerrit Cole (seven innings, one run) was asked how he was feeling.
“Fired up!” Cole said, his voice rising. “Had a couple IPAs with the boys, spraying some champagne. This is the greatest!"
It was a tight series, and even included a benches-clearing incident (not gonna call it a brawl, no punches were thrown) after a hard tag and forearm shiver by Anthony Volpe on a sliding Maikel Garcia on a 3-3-6 double play in the sixth.
The incident didn’t have the same violence as the Hal McRae slide into Willie Randolph or the Graig Nettles-George Brett fists-flying real brawl at third base when the Yankees beat the Royals in the ALCS three straight seasons in the 1970s.
But it led to a tense atmosphere for the final act of this series finale.
To sort of quote Jazz Chisholm Jr., who said the Royals were “lucky” to win Game 2, the Yankees were a little lucky to get out of Kansas City with a victory on Thursday and avoid a Game 5 with the not always reliable Carlos Rodon on the mound.
Cole was magnificent for the first five innings, allowing just a pair of singles to Tommy Pham. The Yankees led 3-0 going to the bottom of the sixth, when the Royals picked up a run after the benches-clearing incident on a two-out double by Vinnie Pasquantino.
Cole, who effectively responded to his so-so Game 1 outing, was determined to get through seven. He was fortunate the game was played at spacious Kauffman and not in a certain ballpark with a short rightfield porch when Kyle Isbel hit a potential game-tying two-run home run to right with two outs in the seventh.
The ball traveled 370 feet. It landed in Juan Soto’s glove at the fence. Cole screamed as he walked off the mound. Yankees Nation and manager Aaron Boone exhaled.
“My heart skipped a beat on Isbel,” Boone said.
Some good signs for the Yankees heading into the ALCS against either Cleveland or Detroit, two more AL Central teams who can’t match the Yankees in payroll or overall talent:
Aaron Judge awoke somewhat, going 1-for-2 with two walks and his first extra-base hit, a scalded double one hop off the left-centerfield wall in the sixth. Judge finished the series 2-for-13 (.154) with five walks. The probable AL MVP did a lot of baton-passing; the Yankees would probably prefer Judge hits a few bombs in the next round.
Giancarlo Stanton continued to mash, going 2-for-3 with a double, walk and RBI. Stanton went 6-for-16 (.375) with four RBIs and had the biggest hit of the ALDS, a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 3-2 win in Game 3.
Clay Holmes, the deposed closer, continued his perfect postseason career (no runs in 13 innings) with a 1-2-3 eighth. Luke Weaver, the new closer, threw a perfect ninth and saved all three games. Weaver had zero saves in a nine-year career before Sept. 6.
The Detroit-Cleveland series is going to a fifth game on Saturday after the Guardians won on Thursday. That’s a potential ALCS break for the Yankees because the Tigers have to use AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal in Game 5.
But the Yankees don’t have to worry about their next foe for a few days. They got to escape Kansas City. They got to taste and get doused in champagne again.
The Yankees are hoping for two more such celebrations, which would mean a 28th World Series title in the Bronx.
Aaron Judge has never been to the World Series. Aaron Boone has never gotten there as Yankees manager. They both burn for it.
And we’re not even going to get into the ramifications of a possible Subway Series against the Mets. That’s almost too mind-blowing to contemplate right now.
First things first: the ALCS, starting Monday in the Bronx.
“We get to go play for a pennant now,” Boone said. “You get into spring training and you want to put yourself in position to be a playoff team, win the division. Check, check. Now it's on to the ALCS.
“This hopefully is not the end of the road for us, and we expect more . . . I feel like we're playing well. I feel like we're pretty well-rounded. We're not perfect by any means, but I'll take our chances.”
The Yankees were good enough, not great, against Kansas City, and they still won in four. That’s the best sign of all.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
