Blue Jays 9, Reds 1: Who cares, real baseball is next for Cincinnati

The Joe Nuxhall Memorial Honorary Star of the Game

Bryson Smith subbed in once the going got awfully tough for the Cincinnati Reds in Saturday's exhibition matchup with the Toronto Blue Jays in Montreal's Olympic Stadium, but at least the young farmhand did his damnedest to make things respectable.  Smith smacked a pair of singles - 2 of only 3 Reds hits on the day - and drove in the good guys' lone run on the afternoon, and for that he'll get a nice, shiny JNMHSotG trophy in the mail the minute accounting approves our work order.

Congrats, Bryson.  Now go enjoy the minors for a bit.

Honorable Mentions are due to:  Brayan Pena, who got a hit; Chad Wallach, who got a standing ovation from the Montreal fans for being the son of Montreal Expos great Tim Wallach; and Joey Votto, who took a very Canadian walk in front of some 50,000 fans in his native country.

Key Plays

• Anthony DeSclafani didn't pitch horribly, but it certainly wasn't his best outing.  After cruising through the Bottom of the 1st, he served up a lengthy dinger to Josh Donaldson in the Bottom of the 2nd to start the game's scoring.  He was then bit by a double from Jose Bautista in the Bottom of the 4th that drove in Montreal native Russell Martin.  Reds trailed, 2-0.
• Kevin Gregg took over in the Bottom of the 5th, and that went terribly.  He recorded just a pair of outs while allowing 4 hits, a walk, and 4 ER without striking out a single Toronto batter.  Singles from Jose Reyes, Edwin Encarnacion, and Donaldson each drove in a run off Gregg, and a fourth run was tagged to the former Marlin and Cub when Chris Carpenter served up a double to Dioner Navarro later that inning.  Reds trailed, 6-0.
• Manny Parra took over in the Bottom of the 6th, and that, too, went terribly.  Parra was smacked around enough to also last just 0.2 innings, serving up 5 hits and allowing 3 runs of his own in the process.  Reds trailed, 9-0.
• Blue Jays reliever Taylor Cole took over for the Top of the 9th, and he allowed Chris Dominguez to walk with 1-out, and Dominguez then took 2B on defensive indifference before scoring on Smith's single.  That was it, though, and the Reds fell, 9-1.