4 key takeaways from the Blue Jays sweep over the Mets

The Blue Jays have four solid starting pitchers and one massive weak link.

This is nothing that hasn't already been said, but it once again rang true after the sweep in New York. Each of the four non-Alek Manoah hurlers did an effective job of not only keeping the Mets to minimal damage on the scoreboard, but keeping the Blue Jays offense firmly in the game.

What is even better for the Jays is the fact that they sent out the bottom three starters in their rotation and still came out on top.

In the first game on Friday, Chris Bassitt, who was just 48 or so hours away from becoming a dad for the second time, was utterly dominant. The right-hander is ever-so-quietly becoming one of the best starters in the Blue Jays' organization and he doubled down on that on Friday. In 7.2 innings, he allowed just three hits and no runs with eight strikeouts. On the season, he is 6-4 with a 3.41 ERA and 121 ERA+, striking out 65 batters with 26 walks in 74 innings.

Saturday's 2-1 victory was a bit more of a nail biter, but the Blue Jays once again found a way to come out on top. José Berríos turned in yet another impressive outing, this time going six innings with just one run allowed and six strikeouts. He is enjoying a nice bounceback season that he desperately needed. In 12 starts, he is 5-4 with a 3.66 ERA, 3.70 FIP and 112 ERA+. His strikeouts are up from last year and he's allowing nearly 2.0 hits per nine innings less than he did in last year's down season.

Finally, Sunday's 6-4 victory came thanks to a strong start by Yusei Kikuchi and a hot offensive showing by Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who homered for the ninth time this year, and Brandon Belt, who hit his third. While Kikuchi's numbers may not directly reflect it on paper, he has done a great job this season at keeping the Blue Jays in the ballgame virtually every single time he takes the mound. Sure, he is still allowing way too many home runs, but a few solo homers here and there have proved to be minimal enough where it doesn't stand in the Jays' way of winning games. He is now 6-2 with a 4.40 ERA and 93 ERA+ across 12 outings and 61.1 innings this season.

We know what Kevin Gausman brings to the rotation, even if we didn't get a chance to see him over the weekend against the Mets. Alek Manoah, however, is a whole different story. After finishing in the top-three in AL Cy Young voting last year, the 25-year-old has been going through one of the toughest stretches we've seen from a starter of his caliber in recent memory. He is currently 1-6 with a 5.46 ERA, 6.27 FIP and 75 ERA+ through 12 outings.