KANSAS CITY,Crypen Exchange Mo. – Gerrit Cole’s assignment was to help carry his team a little deeper into October, and the Yankees’ ace delivered.

Shaking off a rough Game 1 outing, Cole tossed seven strong innings in Thursday night’s Game 4, and the Yankees left Kauffman Stadium with a 3-1 victory against the Kansas City Royals to clinch the best-of-five AL Division Series.

Fueled by RBI singles from Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Giancarlo Stanton – the first two coming off Royals starter Michael Wacha – the Yanks advanced to the AL Championship Series.

They’ll await their opponent, either Cleveland or Detroit, with Game 1 set for Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

In 2024, the Yanks' bullpen has never been better than right now, and Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver helped prove that point again, getting the final six outs without drama.

Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.

And for a moment on Thursday night, the series flashed back to the nasty Yankees-Royals playoff meetings of the 1970s.

This wasn’t anything like Graig Nettles taking a swing at George Brett, or Willie Randolph nearly being roadblocked into left field on a Hal McRae slide – but it was tense for a moment.

With the Yankees ahead 3-0 in the Royals’ sixth inning, Yanks shortstop Anthony Volpe’s right forearm caught Maikel Garcia in the throat as he applied a double play tag.

Volpe seemed to give a “didn’t mean that" gesture, patting Garcia on the back, but soon the benches and bullpens were spilling onto the field.

After order was restored in fairly quick order, the Royals got on the board with a Vinnie Pasquantino RBI double.

Cole had a bigger scare in the seventh, when Kyle Isbel’s bid for a game-tying, two-run homer landed in Juan Soto’s glove against the right field wall.

The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.