Reds and Blue Jays Collide in a Late-Season Meaningless-But-Not Game

Two teams well below .500 meet at Rogers Centre on Friday night, and while the standings offer little drama, the individual storylines on the field are worth your attention. Our model doesn't have a read on this one — so consider this a pure baseball watch.

Neither the Cincinnati Reds (74-85) nor the Toronto Blue Jays (77-82) are playing for anything resembling a postseason berth at this point in September, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to track. Nick Lodolo is expected to start for Cincinnati, with Jose Soriano set to take the mound for Toronto. Two pitchers getting late-season reps with nothing but pride and future roster decisions on the line — which, in my opinion, often produces more honest baseball than a high-leverage pennant race game where managers overthink every matchup.

On the offensive side, the player I'm watching most closely is Sal Stewart. Thirty-two home runs and 110 RBI on a 74-win team is a quietly remarkable individual season, and Stewart deserves more national attention than he's getting. Elly De La Cruz hitting .285 gives Cincinnati a legitimate table-setter at the top of the order, and that combination of contact and power makes the Reds lineup more dangerous than their record suggests. For Toronto, Kazuma Okamoto leads the Blue Jays with 33 home runs and 89 RBI — he's actually edged Stewart in the long ball department, and that makes him the most dangerous bat in this game. Ernie Clement's .264 average gives Toronto some contact presence, but the lineup's ceiling tonight runs through Okamoto.

Here's the honest truth: our model doesn't have a validated read on this game, and I'm not going to manufacture a lean out of thin air. What I will say — strictly as opinion — is that when two sub-.500 teams meet in late September, pitching depth and bullpen management tend to be the deciding factors. Both starters are pitching with low external pressure, which can cut either way. Watch the first three innings closely; if Lodolo or Soriano gets into trouble early, the back ends of these bullpens will be tested in ways that could get messy fast. This one is genuinely a coin flip, and I mean that as analysis, not a dodge.