All business: This was just Step 1 for the Yankees

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Yankees won a series they were favored to win. That they had to win. And congratulations on that in a postseason where being the top seed has generally had little value.

The Royals were pesky. The games were close. The Yankees advanced anyway.

As they should have. As they must.

They did so because Giancarlo Stanton remained a brilliant postseason hitter. Gleyber Torres carried over his strong leadoff finish into October. Jon Berti and Oswaldo Cabrera made Anthony Rizzo’s injury absence irrelevant. Anthony Volpe outplayed Bobby Witt Jr. Gerrit Cole revived from a tough Game 1 with an ace-y Game 4. And the totality of the bullpen was near impenetrable.

So the Yankees won, 3-1, on Thursday night to close out the Royals in four games. And, again, let’s not minimize what the AL’s No. 1 seed did in light of what the theme has been these playoffs. Three of the four top seeds in the wild-card round lost. The Mets already have taken out the Phillies in the Division Series and two other teams that earned first-round byes — the Dodgers and Guardians — had to win do-or-die Game 4s on the road to force decisive Game 5s this weekend.

The Yanks, despite scoring just 14 runs in four games and receiving minimal impact from Aaron Judge, joined the Mets as the first two teams into a League Championship Series — is that a Subway I hear in the distance?

But, really, this was the only acceptable outcome for this team. It is their gift and burden. They were joined in the Division Series by three AL Central teams — the kind they have spent most of the last decade overwhelming and dispatching from the postseason.

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Once that became their AL roadblock — to beat two AL Central teams — then they had to get to their first World Series in 15 years. And, so — one down. Cleveland or Detroit to go. Next stop is the Yankees’ fourth ALCS in the past eight years.

The Yanks won the series despite hitting just three homers in four games, none in the clincher. They moved on despite limited impact from Judge. They won by often turning the most into the least — managing to go 14-for-72 (.194) with runners on base over the four games.

They won the clincher because Torres doubled and scored in front of a Juan Soto RBI single in the first and also delivered a two-out RBI single in the fifth. Stanton, who decided Game 3 with a tie-breaking eighth-inning homer, had two more hits, including a sixth-inning RBI single. It scored Judge, whose leadoff double was his first extra-base hit of the series.

And Cole, Clay Holmes and Luke Weaver made it stand. Cole was hit hard in Game 1 even as the Yankees won. He rebounded to give the Yankees seven one-run innings. Holmes and Weaver each appeared in all four games and never gave up a run. The Yankees bullpen allowed one unearned run in 15 ²/₃ innings against Kansas City.

So the Yankees can now take the weekend off from games. They can enjoy the break that the Tigers have to start likely AL Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal in Saturday’s decisive Game 5 against the Guardians, so if Detroit wins it cannot open the ALCS with the dynamic lefty. That is an ALCS that begins Monday at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees went into Kauffman Stadium tied one game apiece and facing potentially a horror show of ugly possibilities and storylines.

Instead, they were businessmen who took care of business. They were the better team and they won. In this upside down postseason, that is not nothing. But for these Yankees, it is just Step 1.

Their gift and their burden.