Cole shuts down Royals, Stanton comes up clutch again as Yankees advance to ALCS

Gerrit Cole pitched like a postseason ace Thursday night, holding the Kansas City Royals to a single run over seven innings and sending the New York Yankees to a 3-1 victory that put them back in the American League Championship Series.

The six-time All-Star scattered six hits and struck out four before handing the ball to the New York bullpen, which dominated a tense AL Division Series. Clay Holmes tossed a perfect eighth inning and Luke Weaver breezed through the ninth, extending the scoreless streak by Yankees relievers to 15 2/3 innings this postseason.

New York will play Cleveland or Detroit of the ALCS starting Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

“Proud of these guys,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We get to go play for it now and we’re excited about that.”

Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Game 3 star Giancarlo Stanton drove in runs for the Yankees, who fittingly clinched a spot in their fourth ALCS in eight years on the road. They won 50 games away from home in the regular season, their most in 21 years.

Michael Wacha failed to get through five innings for Kansas City, allowing two runs, six hits and a walk. He didn’t get much help from a long-scuffling offense that managed just five runs total over the final three games of the series.

“In 2023, our season ended here, you know? We didn’t get in the postseason,” said Aaron Judge, who secured the final out for New York. “I remember a lot of these guys were looking out on the field, and you know, we all kind of came together and said, `It’s not going to happen again.”‘

Still, it was a remarkable turnaround for a club that went from 106-loss laughingstock a year ago to making its first postseason appearance since winning the 2015 World Series. And with young stars such as Bobby Witt Jr. signed to long-term deals, there is hope in Kansas City that this was a beginning rather than an ending.

New York set the tone from the start, pouncing on Wacha like it did in the series opener. Torres hit the veteran right-hander’s first pitch of the game for a double, and Soto followed with an RBI single on just the third pitch of the night.

Anthony Volpe kept on the pressure with his single in the fifth. And after Alex Verdugo grounded into a forceout and Jon Berti singled to put runners on the corners, Torres lined a two-out single to make it 2-0 and put an end to Wacha’s night.

Meanwhile, Cole only seemed to get stronger as he clicked off innings.

The reigning Cy Young Award winner retired his first six batters, worked around a leadoff single in the third and retired eight more before Tommy Pham’s single in the fifth. Cole promptly struck out Kyle Isbel on three pitches to end that inning.

Stanton, who hit the go-ahead homer in the eighth inning in Game 3, extended the lead to 3-0 with his single in the sixth.

The near-fracas nearly ignited Kansas City, too. Witt, who had been 1 for 15 in the series, followed with a base hit and Vinnie Pasquantino — who’d been 0 for 14 — had an RBI double. But with the sellout crowd of 39,012 in Kauffman Stadium whipped into a sudden frenzy, Cole got Salvador Perez to pop out lazily to second base to end the inning.

Cole’s night ended after he got Isbel to fly out to the warning track with a runner aboard to end the seventh, a deep shot to right field that would have been a tying homer had it been hit to that part of Yankee Stadium.

New York’s bullpen did the rest.

Fry adds 3 RBIs, Guardians force Game 5 vs. Tigers

Pinch-hitter David Fry had a go-ahead, two-run homer in the seventh inning, then bunted home an insurance run in the ninth to help the Cleveland Guardians force a decisive Game 5 against the Detroit Tigers in their AL Division Series with a 5-4 victory on Thursday night.

“David Fry is one of the best baseball players in this league,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said.

Cleveland ended a streak of 11 losses in postseason elimination games dating to Game 6 of 1997 World Series after Emmanuel Clase retired got five outs for his third multi-inning save of the year.

AL Cy Young Award favorite Tarik Skubal will start Game 5 for the Tigers on Saturday afternoon in Cleveland.

“It’s always comforting to have Tarik Skubal on the mound,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch said.

The winner advances to the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees or Kansas City Royals starting Monday.

“We’re still one win away,” Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkeslon said. “That’s the mindset. We don’t want it easy. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

Fry said the Guardians’ resilience was no surprise.

“We’ve shown that all year long, that’s who these guys are,” he said. “We have a bunch of tough dudes. We get down 2-1 and we’re in the locker room like it’s just another day. We show up ready to play to try and get a win. And let’s go win Game 5.”

On the verge of reaching the ALCS for the first time since 2013, the Tigers overcame a 2-1 deficit when Zach McKinstry homered in the fifth off Tanner Bibee and Wenceel Perez hit a run-scoring single in the sixth.

Steven Kwan singled off Sean Guenther with two outs in the seventh.

Beau Brieske had pitched scoreless ball for 5 1/3 innings over four postseason appearances before Fry, batting for Kyle Manzardo, drove a fastball off an advertising sign between the two bullpens in left for the second pinch-homer in Cleveland postseason history after Hank Majeski in Game 4 of the 1954 World Series.

Fry hit the fourth go-ahead pinch home run in postseason history when trailing in seventh inning or later after the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, Toronto’s Ed Sprague in the 1992 World Series and Atlanta’s Eric Hinske in the 2010 NL Division Series.

That quieted 44,923 fans who set a playoff attendance record for the second straight day at 25-year-old Comerica Park.

“Such a great baseball game,” Vogt said.

Clase preserved a 4-3 lead in the eighth when he escaped a second-and-third jam by striking out Trey Sweeney on a 100.9 mph cutter as the batter’s helmet came off.

That proved to be important.

Pinch-hitter Justyn-Henry Malloy doubled leading off the ninth, advanced on Parker Meadows’ groundout and scored on Jace Jung’s groundout.

Clase, who gave up Kerry Carpenter’s three-run homer in the ninth inning of the 3-0 loss in Game 2, struck out Matt Vierling, who couldn’t check his swing on a low and outside cutter.

“I was really excited to get to the mound, especially getting the trust back from the manager to get me in that role and that responsibility,” Clase said through an interpreter.

Lane Thomas ended the Guardians’ 20-inning scoreless streak with a two-out RBI single in the first off Reese Olson, who did not allow a run in the first inning of 22 regular-season starts

Sweeney hit a sacrifice fly in the second and Jose Ramirez put Cleveland ahead with a fifth-inning homere off Tyler Holton, ending an 0-for-10 skid.