Major League Baseball

Red Sox, Blue Jays to play Montreal exhibitions on April 1-2

Published Sep. 18, 2015 5:38 p.m. ET

foxsports

MONTREAL (AP) The Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays will play a pair of exhibitions at Montreal on April 1-2, the third straight year Olympic Stadium will host spring training games.

Montreal hopes to regain a Major League Baseball team after losing the Expos, who started play in 1969 and moved after the 2004 season to Washington, D.C., where they were renamed the Nationals.

In 2014, 96,350 fans attended Toronto's two-game series against the New York Mets and this year 96,545 went to a pair of games between the Blue Jays and Cincinnati, whose roster includes Toronto native Joey Votto.

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre met in May with new MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, who says he was impressed by attendance at the exhibitions but that the city needs a new ballpark to get a big league team.