KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Giancarlo Stanton hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning amid a battle of the bullpens, and the New York Yankees beat the Kansas City Royals 3-2 on Wednesday night in Game 3 of their AL Division Series at Kauffman Stadium. Stanton finished with three hits, drove in two runs and stole a base for the first time in four years for the Yankees, who will turn to six-time All-Star pitcher Gerrit Cole on Thursday night with a chance to reach the American League Championship Series .
The Royals used four relievers before Kris Bubic took over for the eighth. The left-hander struck out Austin Wells before Stanton hit his 3-1 pitch nearly 420 feet to left to give New York the lead. The Royals tried to answer off Luke Weaver in the bottom half, getting Bobby Witt Jr.
's first hit of the series and a two-out single by franchise stalwart Salvador Perez. Weaver recovered to get Yuli Gurriel to fly out to end the threat, and he also handled the ninth to earn the save and cap 4 1/3 scoreless innings by the New York bullpen. The Yankees won despite another frustrating night in the postseason for MVP front-runner Aaron Judge.
He went 0 for 4 with a walk, and is now 1 for 11 with only an infield single through three games against the Royals. It helped that the powerful Yankees drew nine walks Wednesday night, giving them 22 for the series. It was the first playoff game at the K in 3,268 days , since the Royals beat the Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series.
They won .