Gerrit Cole pitched like a postseason ace Thursday night, holding the Royals to a single run over seven innings and sending the Yankees to a 3-1 victory that put them back in the American League Championship Series.

The six-time All-Star scattered six hits and struck out four before handing the ball to the Yankees bullpen, which dominated a tense AL Division Series. Clay Holmes tossed a perfect eighth inning and Luke Weaver breezed through the ninth, extending the scoreless streak by Yankees relievers to 15 2/3 innings this postseason.

The Yankees will play the Guardians or Tigers in the ALCS starting Monday night at Yankee Stadium.

“Proud of these guys,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We get to go play for it now and we’re excited about that.”

Juan Soto, Gleyber Torres and Game 3 star Giancarlo Stanton drove in runs for the Yankees, who fittingly clinched a spot in their fourth ALCS in eight years on the road. They won 50 games on the road in the regular season, their most in 21 years.

“In 2023, our season ended here, you know? We didn’t get in the postseason,” said Aaron Judge, who secured the final out for the Yankees. “I remember a lot of these guys were looking out on the field, and you know, we all kind of came together and said, ‘It’s not going to happen again.’”

The Yankees set the tone from the start, pouncing on starter Michael Wacha like they did in the series opener. Torres hit the veteran right-hander’s first pitch of the game for a double, and Soto followed with an RBI single on just the third pitch of the night.

Meanwhile, Cole only seemed to get stronger as he clicked off innings.

The reigning Cy Young Award winner retired his first six batters, worked around a leadoff single in the third and retired eight more before Tommy Pham’s single in the fifth. Cole promptly struck out Kyle Isbel on three pitches to end that inning.

Cole’s night ended after he got Isbel to fly out to the warning track with a runner aboard to end the seventh, a deep shot to right field that would have been a tying homer had it been hit to that part of Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees’ bullpen did the rest.

“It was a great battle,” Cole said. “Just a great battle.”

Carpenter’s status for Game 5 of ALDS unclear: Tigers slugger Kerry Carpenter was undergoing treatment Friday and resting a hamstring injury that could keep him out of Saturday’s decisive Game 5 of the AL Division Series against the Guardians.

Carpenter, who hit a three-run homer to win Game 2, got hurt while rounding third and scoring in the sixth inning on Thursday night. His run gave the Tigers the lead before the Guardians rallied to win 5-4 and even the back-and-forth series.

MLB moves start of Tigers-Guardians game: Citing a chance of inclement weather, MLB moved the start time of Saturday’s Game 5 of the ALDS from 8:08 p.m. to a 1:08 p.m.

The change was announced Friday as the Tigers were going through a workout at Progressive Field.