Gwiz’s three up/three down

BRONX, N.Y. — There were a lot of swings in the first series between the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium. On some nights the Yankees outright flummoxed the Blue Jays lineup, on others, they were sloppy on execution. Overall, you can't complain too much when you garner a split and shut out that Toronto lineup twice!

Taking a brief look back, here are my three up and three down from the Toronto series:

Three up:

The pitching staff: As mentioned above, the pinstripe pitchers blanked the Blue Jays in both victories. They're building up starters with length. The bullpen was also especially soild, with an exclamation point from Michael King cleaning up the mess by Aroldis Chapman and getting out of a bases-loaded, zero outs situation to preserve the victory in Game 4. Also, credit to manager Aaron Boone for recognizing that Chapman didn't have it and made the switch.

Luis Severino: I tend not to get overly pumped up about a five-inning outing but Severino picked up his teammates and provided and electric display. Severino struck out six batters in five scoreless frames, including Vladimir Guerrero Jr. three times.

Aaron Hicks: Hicks collected four hits in four games. His two-run tater in the second game proved to hold up as the winner. Hicks posted a 1.323 OPS against the Jays.

https://twitter.com/Yankees/status/1514028489078456324?s=20&t=t4y4ndJ1991JAdbRD_SiEg

Three down:

Kyle Higashioka: I know he's not in there for his bat but you have to do better than posting an 0-for-11 in three games. Plus his penchant for being Gerrit Cole's "personal catcher," didn't exactly pay dividends either.

Gleyber Torres: His inability to turn a likely inning-ending, taylor made, double play ball during the seventh inning of the third contest enabled the Blue Jays to keep their rally going and eventually take the lead for good.

Gerrit Cole: For one night, Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner didn't have to pay Cole because Guerrero Jr. absolutely owned him. Mind you he wasn't getting much support in the early going from the offense but I need more from my ace than three runs in 5.2 innings.