Yankees’ bottom of the order powers shutout win over Blue Jays

The schedule-makers threw the Yankees into the deep end to start off the year. 

But they came out of their season-opening, seven-game gut check with their heads above water, finishing it off on a high note Thursday night in The Bronx. 

Luis Severino looked more like his old self than in his first start of the season, tossing five shutout innings, and the bottom of the Yankees’ lineup picked up the slack offensively to combine for a 3-0 win over the Blue Jays. 

Aroldis Chapman made things dramatic in the ninth inning, never finding his command as he walked the bases loaded without recording an out. But Michael King replaced him and struck out George Springer on three pitches before getting Bo Bichette to hit a soft liner that DJ LeMahieu turned into a double play to end it. 

In a game that was delayed 90 minutes by rain, the Yankees split the series with the AL East favorites and finished their homestand against the Red Sox and Blue Jays with a record of 4-3. 

“I think we have a chance to be a really good team,” manager Aaron Boone said before the game when asked for his impressions from the first week of the season. “I think we play in a really good division, where it’s going to be super-competitive all season, all summer long. We’ve jumped right in here with the Red Sox and Blue Jays and faced a lot of good arms. We’ve obviously faced good lineups. It’s going to be a fun, tough season that my early signs say we’re equipped to handle this. My expectations are high.” 

Severino worked around early traffic before settling in and mowing down the Blue Jays (4-3). Perhaps most impressive, he struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. three times, a night after the Blue Jays star went 4-for-4 with three home runs and a double. On Thursday, Guerrero went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. 

After the third strikeout of Guerrero to end the fifth inning — and Severino’s night after 83 pitches — the right-hander let out a guttural scream and slapped his glove as he walked off the mound. In his second start since returning from Tommy John surgery, Severino gave up just two hits and two walks while striking out six. 

The Yankees got their run support against Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman from the Nos. 8 and 9 spots in their lineup, which had been something of a black hole in the first week of the season. Entering Thursday, the bottom two hitters in the Yankees’ lineup had been 3-for-42, but Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jose Trevino flipped the script. 

They combined to go 5-for-6, with Kiner-Falefa scoring both runs and Trevino driving him in both times. 

The duo first connected in the third inning. Kiner-Falefa lifted a one-out single to left field, then took second on a Gausman balk. Trevino came up next and roped another single to left field, which took a short hop that got away from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and allowed Kiner-Falefa to score for the 1-0 lead. 

They did it again in the fifth inning, which Kiner-Falefa kept alive with a two-out double drilled through the left side. Trevino then blooped a single to left field to score Kiner-Falefa, putting the Yankees ahead 2-0. 

The heart of the lineup chipped in an insurance run in the eighth inning, as Aaron Judge doubled and eventually scored on a Giancarlo Stanton groundout. 

Severino, meanwhile, made sure the Blue Jays never got going. 

There was a brief hiccup in the first inning, when Severino’s 98 mph fastball ran up and in to plunk Gurriel on the left hand. As Gurriel was tended to, Severino appeared to exchange words with the Blue Jays dugout, but the situation was quickly defused. 

Severino then loaded the bases with one out in the second inning — with some help from an Anthony Rizzo fielding error — but he set down Springer and Bichette to escape the jam, going on to retire 11 of the final 12 batters he faced.