"This is the best part of the year'' Yankees celebrate advancing to the ALCS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Ready for their latest on-field clinching photo, all the Yankees had gathered at the Kauffman Stadium pitcher’s mound - except their ace.

So, Gerrit Cole’s teammates began raucously chanting his name.

Delayed in the post-Division Series Game 4 interview room, Cole emerged to wild cheers and moved into the picture, arms raised as the photographers caught another cheery, beery October moment.

“This is the best part of the year,’’ said Cole, after delivering seven strong innings in Thursday night’s 3-1 win against the Royals, helping send the Yankees to the AL Championship Series.

In this best-of-five ALDS against a tough Kansas City club - a franchise that lost 106 games last year – each game was decided by either one or two runs.

And how full circle did it feel to celebrate right here, on this field?

“All day, I was just thinking about our season ending here in ’23, no playoffs. That stung,’’ said Yankees captain Aaron Judge, drenched in beer and sparkling wine.

A Yankee turnaround that started in Kansas City

After that final regular season game, before the Yankees went their separate ways, “a lot of guys stuck around, just staring at the field,’’ Judge said, talking about “what-ifs, and what could we have done.’’

From that ending – a season dubbed a “disaster’’ by GM Brian Cashman – the 2024 Yankees emerged a little more battle-scarred, a little better through offseason work…

And they also traded for Juan Soto, who vastly improved their lineup.

In the same room where the Yankees madly celebrated advancing to the ALCS – against either Cleveland or Detroit – they had glumly staged an autopsy of a lost 2023 season.

“We talked in here after that (final 2023) series (about how) we know what we need to do, we know the focus we’ve got to have,’’ said manager Aaron Boone.

"And to a man in that group, we did the work this winter to be prepared to have a great season.’’

Gerrit Cole delivers the Yankees to the ALCS

Boone recalled how Judge “was banged up and going to the post every day’’ late in that lost '23 season, and how the Yanks found a way to rally around Cole’s Cy Young Award year.

And just when they'd put '23 behind them, the Yankees confronted an unsettling period in March, when Cole’s elbow rebelled, and their 2024 season appeared to take a devastating hit before it began.

“I just feel really blessed, to be honest,’’ Cole said of the behind-the-scenes help in rehabbing from elbow nerve irritation and starting his season in June.

“My teammates have had my back throughout the ups and downs,’’ said Cole. “It’s special…really special. I’m very grateful.’’

Yankees Universe was just thrilled Thursday night to have the vintage Cole, after he’d stumbled through five innings in Game 1 – hit hard early in an eventual 6-5 Yankee win.

As Game 4 moved into a tense sixth inning, with a momentary bench clearing incident at second base, Cole admitted to “a feeling I was going to get a hook’’ due to the bullpen’s activity.

A roar that could be heard in the Bronx

And the Yankees aren’t here without their bullpen's work, 6.1 scoreless innings in these two wins at KC, including the drama-less eighth and ninth by Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver.

Cole gave up a run in the sixth, when Bobby Witt Jr. – 1-for-15 to that point in the ALDS – singled and scored on Vinnie Pasquantino’s double.

RBI singles by Soto, Gleyber Torres (both off Michael Wacha) and Game 3 hero Giancarlo Stanton had given Cole a three-run lead, and that edge held.

But Yankees Universe held its breath as Kyle Isbel’s seventh inning bid for a game-tying two-run homer landed in Soto’s glove at the right field wall.

Coming off the mound, Cole let out a ferocious CC Sabathia-esque roar.

"I was proud of the way we competed, and I was holding in my emotions in all night,'' said Cole. "I just let it out.''

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: "This is the best part of the year'' Yankees celebrate advancing to the ALCS