Cole Tremendous; Holmes & Weaver Shut Door; Yanks Advance! NY 3 KC 1

Luke Weaver lets out animal scream after getting Yuli Gurriel to fly out to center for final out of game and series.

Gerrit Cole threw down — 7 innings of 1-run ball with a shutout into the 6th, leaving with a 3-1 lead — and Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver shut the door with a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th and 9th respectively — to carry the Yankees to the ALCS with a 3-1 win over the Royals in Kansas City on a Thursday night.

The Yankees scored all their runs on RBI singles — by Juan Soto in the 1st, by Gleyber Torres in the 5th, and by Giancarlo Stanton in the 6th, knocking in Aaron Judge who had led the inning off with a booming double.

The Yanks and Yankee fans everywhere survived the scare of scares in the 7th inning, when with 2 outs Tommy Pham singled and Kyle Isbel hit a HIGH FLY BALL to right that looked GONE for a tie game — but the wind — blowing 19 MPH in from right — held it up and Juan Soto caught it at the wall. PHEWWWWWWWW.

“Gerrit was great,” said manager Aaron Boone afterwards. “Really efficient again. I thought right from jump his fastball was really good and he had the command of it, and he was able to mix  other things off of that. But it started with the fastball tonite, being in a really good spot. Credit to the Royals — it’s really good team over there. All 4 of these games were tight; well-played games.”

NY now awaits the winner of the Cleveland-vs-Detroit series, which is tied 2-2 with game 5 slated for Saturday.

1. Yanks Jump on Top in 1st

KC started Michael Wacha — who had a good year (13-8 3.35) can be lights out if he is on his game. The Yanks jumped on him in the top of the 1st — Gleyber Torres hit the first pitch of the game for a double to center, and Juan Soto hit the 3rd pitch of the game for an RBI single to right. NY 1 KC 0.

2. Cole Masterpiece

Gerrit Cole then took over with a 1-2-3 inning in the 1st, with 2 strikeouts, and a 1-2-3 inning in the 2nd.

Tommy Pham — who would have 3 hits on the evening off Cole — led off the 3rd with a single, but Cole shutdown the next 3 batters (groundout, groundout, strikeout) to send the shutout into the 4th.

Cole had a crisp, high-octane 97- to 98-MPH fastball and was using it to effect, along with his nasty 93-MPH cutter (not so many knuckle curves on this evening). He was getting a lot of easy-out contact on fly balls and grounders.

He blew through the 4th (lineout, groundout, popout) and 5th (popout, flyout, single by Pham, strikeout) to carry a shutout and 3-0 lead into the bottom of the 6th.

3. Torres Makes It 2-0 in 5th

Meanwhile Wacha settled down and was tough, as he can be. The Yanks wasted a leadoff double by Giancarlo Stanton in the 2nd as Wacha got tough and struck out Jazz Chisholm Jr.in process of retiring 6 in a row until an Aaron Judge walk leading off the 4th. But Wacha induced Austin Wells to hit into a double play and Stanton to pop out and it was 1-0 NY into the 5th — a razor close game.

The Yanks scratched another run in the 5th — Anthony Volpe, who had a great series, started the rally with a 1-out single.

Alex Verdugo hit into a fielder’s choice, moved to 3rd on a clutch 2-out single by Jon Berti, and scored when Gleyber Torres got a Clutch, 2-out RBI single to right. NY 2 KC 0.

4. Judge & Giancarlo Make It 3-0 in 6th

Gleyber’s single knocked out Wacha. Lucas Erceg came in to get the final out of the 5th, but Aaron Judge got to him with a Booming double to lead off the 6th.

Austin Wells did his job — hitting a grounder to the right side to advance Judge to 3rd; Wells got high-5’s in the dugout.

Giancarlo Stanton then RIPPED a single to center through the drawn-in infield for a 3-0 Yankee lead.

5. Cole Rope-a-Dopes 6th; Benches Clear

And then came the bottom of the 6th.

Single; Double Play; Benches Clear

Maikal Garcia led off with a single. Garcia is super fast (stole 37 bases this year and was only caught 2 times) but didn’t take off as Cole got ahead of Michael Massey 0-2, then fouled off a pitch.

On pitch 4 Massey hit a hard grounder to 1st that Jon Berti made the play on, tagged the bag then threw to 2nd for the double play. Garcia threw down a late, hard slide and Volpe, receiving the ball, tagged him out as Maikal slid into him, then tagged him again to make sure as Maikal slid off the bag. Volpe’s right arm inadvertently came across Maikal’s throat on the initial slide, but Volpe quickly patted Maikal on the back to tell him it was inadvertent.

As Maikal lingered and then started to walk off — Jazz Chisholm Jr.came over from 3rd and told Maikal off — and benches cleared. The slow-mo of this replay doesn’t tell the story as much as live action, where you can see the speed and force of Maikal’s slide:

After play resumed, Cole allowed a single to Bobby Witt Jr.on a 1-2 pitch, and an RBI double by Vinnie Pasquantino on a 0-2 pitch. NY 3 KC 1.

Cole then got Salvador Perez to pop up foul — which Austin Wells just missed catching on a slide by the wall behind home plate, and then got Perez to pop out to Gleyber at 2nd to end the inning. PHEW.

6. Cole Rope-a-Dopes 7th; Gets Heart-Attack Fly

Cole was at a good pitch count, so stayed in for the 7th and the bottom of the KC lineup. He got the first 2 outs — a groundout and a lineout to left by MJ Melendez that Verdugo made a nice catch on.

But Tommy Pham got his 3rd hit of the night off Cole and Isbel hit a 97-MPH fastball HIGH AND DEEP AND GONE to right for a tie game — but the wind blew it back and Juan Soto made a catch at the wall. PHEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

7. Holmes Shutdown 8th

And then it was to the Yankee bullpen — Clay Holmes, who has looked very good lately — threw down a 1-2-3 inning in the 8th — strikeout, lineout, groundout (of Bobby Witt Jr. as the entire stadium were standing and hoping.

8. Weaver Shutdown 9th

And then Luke Weaver for the 9th — FILTHY. He quieted the KC fans who were raising a last-hope cheer — striking out Vinnie Pasquantino on 3 pitches, striking out Salvador Perez on 5 pitches, and getting Gurriel to hit 1st pitch to center for a can-of-corn flyout and the old ballgame.

 

The Boxscore

https://www.espn.com/mlb/boxscore/_/gameId/401701048

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