‘Just no fear in them’: Yankees praise Kansas City Royals after competitive ALDS

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole at times made it look easy in holding the Royals to one run off six hits while working seven innings in Thursday night’s 3-1 ALDS clinching victory at Kauffman Stadium.

Trust him when he says his 87 pitches, including 67 for strikes, were of the high-stress variety. He spoke in superlatives regarding the Kansas City hitters in his postgame session with the media.

“I’ve got to be honest with you, the Royals are a damn good ballclub,” Cole said after improving to 11-6 in 19 career postseason starts and lowering his ERA in the playoffs to 2.94 in 116 innings.

“That was a really tough series,” added Cole, who survived two major calamities on Thursday.

MJ Melendez’s deep fly ball to right field in the fifth inning didn’t have quite enough carry to land in the bleachers, instead nestled in the glove of Juan Soto. Also, Kyle Isbel fell inches short of a two-run homer in the seventh inning, Soto catching the ball right in front of the wall.

Cole held KC’s Bobby Witt to a 1-for-4 night. Witt finished the series, won by the Yankees 3-1, with two hits in 17 at-bats and a walk.

“In terms of Witt, a little bit of bad luck. He hit some balls on the screws,” Cole said., “It took a lot of good pitches to keep him in check. That’s a testament to how great a player he is. With a little more luck, a little more ball-to-the left, ball-to-the right, he may have had a couple more hits. Fortunately for us the ball fell our way in that regard. (He’s) just a helluva ballplayer really.”

Like Cole, Yankee slugger Aaron Judge, who went 1-for-2 with two walks Thursday — he hit a double for his first extra-base hit in the series — leaves KC impressed with the Royals.

“(They’ve) just got a lot of gamers over there, starting with their leader, Salvy (Perez), a guy who has won a World Series and won a World Series MVP. He comes up clutch so many times for them,” Judge said.

He continued.

“Bobby Witt, who had an incredible season. who continues to impress the baseball world every single day with what he can do ... it’s amazing what they are capable of,” Judge added. “They’ve got a lot of guys over there who are gamers. You saw them the whole series battling off tough pitches, having great at bats after great at bats. Go back to that first game, five, six lead changes — back and forth, just no fear in them. Just a lot of fight. (There’s) definitely going to be a lot of battling with them for years to come.”

Yankees skipper Aaron Boone had this to say about the Royals: “Credit to the Royals. It’s a really good team over there. All four of these games were tight and I thought well-played games. I thought we did a lot of really good things throughout the series. But Gerrit setting the tone tonight, really setting us up for the back end (of the bullpen in the eighth and ninth) tonight. It was a good series against a good club.”