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Reds, Jays meet again in Queen City

Jun 18, 2011 - 3:08 PM (Sports Network) - Interleague play continues this evening in Cincinnati as the hometown Reds host the second of three weekend meetings with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Brandon Morrow's season has been a bit disappointing to date, as he is 2-4 with a 5.63 ERA. Today, the Toronto righty will take the mound, hoping to bounce back from a poor outing against Boston. In that most recent start, he permitted a career-high nine runs and a season-high 10 hits. He is now winless in his last six starts.

Morrow has never faced Cincinnati in his career.

There is no doubt that Reds' hurler Edinson Volquez was disappointed when the team sent him down to the minors last month, but he has certainly responded positively since being recalled. In his two starts since rejoining the big club, the righty is 1-0 with a 2.08 ERA. His control has seemingly returned and he has been able to rack up a decent amount of strikeouts (10) in those two outings as well.

Volquez was rocked in his only previous matchup with Toronto, surrendering five earned runs in just 4 1/2 innings of action en route to defeat.

Last night, Adam Lind homered for a fourth straight game and Jose Bautista ripped an RBI double to lead the Blue Jays to a 3-2 win over the Reds.

Lind's tie-breaking two-run blast came in the seventh inning, as did Bautista's run-scoring hit.

Jo-Jo Reyes (3-5) tossed 6 1/3 solid innings, giving up two runs on six hits while striking out five to pick up the win for Toronto, which had lost five of its past seven games.

Drew Stubbs hit an inside-the-park home run and Scott Rolen added one of the more typical variety for the Reds in the opener of this three-game set.

Jonny Gomes chipped in a pair of hits for Cincinnati, which saw its three-game winning streak snapped.

Mike Leake (6-3) threw seven innings, giving up five hits while fanning three to have his three-decision winning streak broken. It was his first defeat since May 11 at Houston.

Frank Francisco tossed the ninth to pick up his seventh save of the season.

Toronto reached the .500 mark with the victory, but remains 7 1/2 games back of first-place Boston in the AL East.

As for Cincinnati, it sits in third place in the NL Central and is just two games behind first-place Milwaukee. St. Louis is a game off the pace.

Toronto has won seven of its 10 all-time bouts with the Reds and took two of three games from Cincinnati when the teams last met at the Rogers Centre in 2009. The Blue Jays' only previous trip to Cincinnati came in 2003, with the Reds winning twice in a three-game set.