KANSAS CITY – It was, by all accounts, a magical season in Kansas City. From 56 wins in 2023 to 86 and the postseason in ‘24. Bringing playoff baseball back to Kauffman Stadium for the first time since ‘15. The marvelous season of shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. and an incredible pitching turnaround fueled by one of the best rotations in baseball.

All of that doesn’t mean there can’t be disappointment for how it ended.

The Royals’ season closed Thursday when they lost, 3-1, in Game 4 of the American League Division Series to the Yankees at Kauffman Stadium. A series of tight games and close calls ended with the Yankees celebrating a trip to the ALCS with the Royals looking on from their home dugout.

“It stings, but that’s OK," manager Matt Quatraro said. "It’s OK to have it sting, because this isn’t where we want our season to end. This isn’t what we hoped for when we started out, and I think it’s OK to embrace it, that it doesn’t feel very good."

Kansas City’s 2024 season was built on its pitching, particularly its rotation, but not one of their starters pitched into the sixth inning this series. Game 4 starter Michael Wacha allowed two runs on six hits in 4 2/3 innings on Thursday. Three pitches into the game, the Royals were down, 1-0. Gleyber Torres smacked a first-pitch fastball for a double and scored on Juan Soto’s single.

The early deficit was not the end of the world, and Wacha was able to recover. He even got hit in the neck by Michael Massey’s foul ball in the dugout during the bottom of the first inning, but after a quick look by the training staff, Wacha retook the mound for the second inning.

Wacha allowed another run in the fifth inning and had runners on the corners with two outs when Quatraro brought in his closer, Lucas Erceg.

The Royals wanted their very best reliever on the mound, in hopes of keeping the game close instead of letting him sit in the bullpen in hopes of being in the perfect situation in the ninth inning.

Erceg got out of that situation in the fifth but allowed another run in the sixth to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead.

Yankees starter Gerrit Cole was dominant Thursday despite some loud contact. The only run he allowed in seven innings came in the bottom of a tense sixth inning. Benches cleared when Maikel Garcia slid into second as Michael Massey grounded into double play, with words exchanged among Garcia, Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe and Yankees third baseman Jazz Chisholm.

Shortly after, Bobby Witt Jr. singled and scored on Vinnie Pasquantino’s first hit of the series, a double to left-center field.

Kansas City’s 2024 season was also built on its stars in Witt, Pasquantino and Salvador Perez, the heart of the lineup that often carried so much of the offense. That run in the sixth inning was one of the few times that trio influenced this series. Perez hit a game-tying homer in Game 2’s win, but he finished the ALDS 3-for-16. Witt was 2-for-17, and Pasquantino was 1-for-16.

There were plenty of loud outs -- Witt’s 114.7 mph flyout in the fourth inning was the second-hardest-hit ball of his career -- and missed opportunities. Twice, the Royals had fly outs at the very edge of the warning track in right field, near-homers knocked down into Juan Soto’s glove. Kyle Isbel’s in the seventh inning would have been a game-tying two-run blast off Cole and a home run in 24 ballparks.

Just not Kauffman Stadium.