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Montreal's Nick Johnson steals second base under Toronto's Dave Berg on Friday. (Humberto Trias/AP)

Almost being the operative word.

In his Major League debut, Bush was charged with one run in 5 2/3 solid innings, but came out on the losing end of a 2-0 decision against the Expos in front of 8,020 fans on a humid night at Hiram Bithorn Stadium.

Bush's contract was officially purchased from Triple-A Syracuse for Friday's game and he didn't mind making his debut in a park outside of Canada and the United States.

How could he?

"Actually, I think it was a little easier because it's kind of similar to what I was having at Triple-A," Bush said. "Obviously, it's a little more of an emotional crowd and you can feed off that a little bit. It was fun being down here and a great experience. I'm glad to get the first one out of the way, and everything went smoothly for the most part."

The only bump for Bush was the loss, but in his defense, Expos starter Livan Hernandez also had something to do with the outcome.

Hernandez earned his sixth win of the season and his second victory against the Expos in as many starts with the shutout. Hernandez (6-7) allowed only four hits, struck out five and walked one batter.

"He's a great pitcher and that's what he does," Toronto manager Carlos Tosca said of Hernandez. "He basically pitched at 85 (mph) most of the night and hit 89 (mph) twice when he needed to -- and his last pitch of the game was 90 (mph)."

As for Bush (0-1), he cruised through the Expos lineup, allowing only four hits in the outing. He shut the Expos offense down for the first five innings and appeared on his way to another scoreless inning. He struck out Brad Wilkerson to start the sixth, then got Endy Chavez to fly out for the second out.

But that's where the rookie ran into some trouble.

Jose Vidro and Nick Johnson each followed with a single and just like that, Bush's night on the mound was over.

Justin Speier was brought in to face Tony Batista. A game locked at zero was finished when Batista connected on a single that pushed Vidro home and put the Expos ahead, 1-0.

"I thought Wilkerson's at-bat really did him in," Tosca said of Bush. "He was going through the third time in the order and he was at 95 pitches. It was the first time he had ever been in that territory, so that's what that (pitching change) was based on."

Speier recovered to retire Orlando Cabrera for the final out of the sixth inning, but the damage had been done and victory would elude Bush and the Blue Jays on this night.

Bush did not second-guess his manager's move.

"Any pitcher will tell you they want to stay in the game, especially with two outs in a 0-0 game, but it was probably the right move to bring in a reliever, a fresh arm, at that point," Bush said. "I could have done my part to get out of the inning, but that's the way it goes sometimes."

Vidro scored again in the bottom of the eighth inning on another RBI by Batista for the Expos' second run. The win may have belonged to the Expos, but the night, in part, belonged to Bush.

"I had pretty good feel for what he liked to throw in certain situations and which pitches he had better command of," said Blue Jays catcher Gregg Zaun, who caught Bush at Triple-A. "It was definitely nice. There was not as much guesswork to be done and he pretty much gave me everything I wanted all night long. He kept us in that ballgame."

Bush became the 19th player in Blue Jays franchise history to make his big league debut as a starter -- the last pitcher to do that was Mike Smith in 2002 at Anaheim.

At Triple-A, Bush went 6-6 with a 4.06 ERA in 16 starts. He was 1-1 with a 2.45 ERA in his last three minor league starts.

"He was aggressive and did not seem real nervous out there," Tosca said. "He located the fastball real well to both sides of the plate, and he had a breaking ball and a changeup. You can't ask for anything more than that."

Jesse Sanchez is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

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