Manoah gem, two Bo Bichette home runs lead Jays over Reds at packed Dome

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Hunter Greene is probably owed something by the baseball gods, but that debt was not to be collected in Toronto.

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A start ago the hard-throwing Reds rookie hurler pitched 71/3 hitless innings only to take a 1-0 loss in a game in which the opposing Pirates never managed a hit.

It has been done six times in Major League history. Now Greene did walk five Pirates in the game and one of those walks came around to score on a one-out groundout, so he wasn’t flawless, but there is something to be said for rewarding a guy and his bullpen that go a whole game without giving up a hit.

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Against the Jays Greene was neither flawless nor hitless, but he was still pretty damn good but still came away on the wrong end of a 3-1 loss to the Jays only this time he didn’t take the L.

Greene is a future all-star who just needs time on the bump to figure out how best to utilize his electric right arm.

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The only real blemish on his afternoon by the Jays came in the fourth inning of the six he remained in the game when Bo Bichette jumped on a first-pitch slider and felt it just into the front row of the second deck in left.

Bichette wasn’t done with the Reds but that was all the Jays would scratch out against Greene.

At just 22 years of age Greene is already a formidable presence on the mound. He threw 24 pitches over 100 mph Saturday afternoon getting seven whiffs on his slider, the only other pitch other than that devastating four seamer he threw all afternoon.

Jays starter Alek Manoah meanwhile may not have that kind of pop in his arm, but he’s got a season and a whole lot of polish on his game that Greene has yet to acquire.

Manoah went eight scoreless innings limiting the Reds to seven hits and nary a free pass on his way to his fifth win of the year.

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Manoah, like Greene, is predominantly a fastball/slider guy but he’ll mix in the odd change-up and sinker here and there to keep hitters guessing a little.

It served him very well on Saturday.

Bichette’s first hit of the game was that homer off Greene’s slider, the 50th of his young career and fifth of the season.

But the big bop from the Jays young shortstop came in the seventh after the Jays had stranded two in the fifth and three in the sixth against Greene.

Now facing Luis Cessa, Bichette arrived with two out and Raimel Tapia on third representing the go-ahead run.

Again it was a fist pitch slider that he jumped on and deposited in that familiar left field second deck for his sixth multi-homer game of his career.

It gave the Jays a 3-1 lead that would stand up with Jordan Romano locking down his 14th save with a three-strikeout ninth.

The Jays complete the series Sunday afternoon with left-hander Yusei Kikuchi taking on Connor Overton as the Jays go for the sweep.