KANSAS CITY, Mo. >> Gerrit Cole pitched seven effective innings and Gleyber Torres, Juan Soto and Giancarlo Stanton each supplied key hits tonight to lead the New York Yankees to a 3-1 victory against the Kansas City Royals in a decisive Game 4 of the American League Division Series.

After failing to reach the postseason a year ago, the Yankees advanced to the American League Championship Series for the second time in three seasons and for the fourth time since 2017.

New York won’t learn of its opponent in the ALCS until Saturday, when Cleveland will host Detroit in Game 5 of the other best-of-five ALDS. The Guardians extended that series with a 5-4 victory against the Tigers on today.

The Royals, coming off a 56-106 season in 2023, advanced beyond the wild-card round under manager Matt Quatraro in their first postseason trip since 2015, when they won their franchise’s second World Series title. Star shortstop Bobby Witt went 2-for-17 (.118) with a walk in the series.

Yankees slugger Aaron Judge, who came in struggling in the postseason after making himself the favorite to win AL MVP in the regular season, hit a hard double in two at-bats, scored a run, walked twice and stole a base.

Benches and bullpens cleared briefly in the bottom of the sixth inning following a slide into second by the Royals’ Maikel Garcia and Anthony Volpe’s tag for a key double play.

After grinding to a no-decision in the series opener, Cole (1-0) allowed a run and six hits and no walks to go with four strikeouts. He kept the Royals off the scoreboard through the first five innings.

New York’s bullpen continued to dominate with Clay Holmes handling a scoreless eighth inning and Luke Weaver finishing in the ninth for his third save of the series. Yankees relievers combined to allow zero earned runs in 15 2/3 innings in the series.

The Yankees scored quickly against right-hander Michael Wacha, who, like Cole, also started Game 1. Three pitches into the first inning, Soto lined an RBI single to right. The hit brought home Torres, who had doubled, and gave New York a 1-0 lead.

Wacha (0-1) kept the Yankees from adding more until there were two outs in the fifth, when Torres lined an RBI single to right, knocking in Alex Verdugo from third. Lucas Erceg then replaced Wacha to halt the rally.

Stanton, who hit the go-ahead home run late in Game 3, came through again with an RBI single in the sixth for 3-0 lead.

The Royals pushed across a run in the bottom of the sixth when Vinnie Pasquantino hit an RBI double to score Witt with two outs. However, strong Yankees defense thwarted Kansas City’s best chance for a bigger inning.

After Garcia led off with a single, first baseman Jon Berti and Volpe turned a Michael Massey grounder into a neat 3-6 double play. Garcia slid hard and Volpe made a dedicated tag for the second out, but Garcia didn’t leave the field immediately. He appeared to jaw with a third Yankees player, which led to a stoppage before heads cooled.

After Pasquantino’s RBI hit, Salvador Perez popped out to end the inning.