KANSAS CITY, Mo. — 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 4⅓ 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.

New York won with only four hits, the team’s fewest in a postseason win since 19 years ago to the day on Oct. 9, 2005, in the ALDS against the Angels (also four hits).

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 New York Mets in Game 2 of the 2015 World Series. They won their first title in 30 years a few days later in New York.

The first baseman on that Royals team, Eric Hosmer, was on hand to deliver the first pitch for a crowd that included Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

The Yankees had some good swings against Seth Lugo‘s dizzying array of nine pitches, but they had nothing to show for it early on.

Juan Soto flew out to center in the first on what would have been a homer in 17 ballparks. Judge followed with a liner snared by Witt at shortstop that had an exit velocity of 114 mph. And in the third, Gleyber Torres hit a ball to the warning track in right, moments after a review confirmed that his would-be RBI blooper down the line had landed foul.

The Yankees broke through in the fourth on Stanton’s double — Soto came around from first to score, though he might well have been out had Witt delivered a better relay throw to the plate. And in the fifth, Soto added a bases-loaded sacrifice fly.

The Royals answered with two in the fifth. Kyle Isbel got them on the board with a two-out double to left, and Michael Massey ripped a sinking liner that somehow missed Soto’s glove in right for an RBI triple.

Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt was dinged for both runs on four hits and a walk in 4⅔ innings. Lugo went five for Kansas City, allowing two hits and walking four against the team that led the league in free passes this season.

Cole (8-5, 3.41 ERA) heads back to the mound Thursday night. He allowed four runs — three earned — over five innings in the opener Saturday night but got no decision in the 6-5 win for New York.

Royals right-hander Michael Wacha (13-8, 3.35 ERA) will face Cole again after pitching just four innings Saturday. He allowed three runs but was long gone by the time the Yankees scored the go-ahead run in the seventh.

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.