With August coming to a close and the Blue Jays first winning month of the season secured, the little victories have been a welcome development for a dramatically under-achieving team.
And towering above the all things are relatie hollowness of some of that positivity has been brilliant Bowden Francis who once again flirted with a no-hitter in Thursday’s 2-0 win over the Boston Red Sox at famed Fenway Park.
The strapping right-hander, who took a no-no into the ninth in his previous start at the Rogers Centre this past Saturday, went 5.1 innings before allowing a soft line-drive single to Boston’s Nick Sogard to deny his latest bit for history.
Over his past four starts, Francis is charging beyond being merely a feel-good, short-sample-size-star, but the rise above story of a disappointing Jays season. After completing the seventh inning on Thursday, Francis had allowed just six hits and two runs in 29 innings.
Following that gruelling 117-pitch outing on the weekend, Francis was lifted after seven shutout frames in Fenway, another dominating effort in which he allowed that solitary hit from 70 pitches.
The 28-year-old Floridian has been nothing short of sensational over his recent sublimely successful stretch, a commanding run that guaranteed his name will be a dominant part of the off-season discourse.
How impressive has that four-start surge been for Francis, who is charging his way into being a regular part of the Jays rotation for 2025? For three of those outings, he’s allowed just one hit, with a mere three in the other.
Leading a Jays team that won three of its five games against the Red Sox this week to improve to 66-70, Francis was efficient in his pitch count and electric in his delivery as he shut down the Red Sox through five no-hit innings. He began mowing down opposing hitters with a five-pitch first and had thrown just 49 through five innings in what was shaping up as a remarkable reprise to his Rogers Centre gem on Saturday.
Francis came into Thursday’s game as the hottest pitcher in the big leagues over a three-start stretch that was impressive, even if two of his dominating efforts were against the miserable-hitting Los Angeles Angels.
The win on Thursday – which precedes a three-game weekend series against the Twins in Minnesota – improved the Jays record to 15-11 in August, guaranteeing its only winning month before the calendar flips to September. And with due respect to the impressive offensive output from some of the young hitters in the Jays lineup who are getting an opportunity to play, the Francis work has been sensational.
What does it mean going forward will unfold over the final month of the season and into spring training, but at the least, Francis has emerged as an important piece of pitching depth for the Jays and at best, an important part of the rotation. Not only has he improved significantly from his early season struggles when he pitched his way out of the starting group, he’s throwing with the poise and confidence of a veteran.
And over an incredible August, he’s been unhittable. Well almost, anyway.
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GAME ON
While it would have been great to see Francis pitch into the eighth on Thursday, Jays manager John Schneider did the right thing by his young hurler. The 117 pitches he threw on Saturday was a career high and only twice had he topped 81 … Prior to allowing the hit to Sogard, the lone runner to reach on Francis was Jarren Duran who claimed first on a throwing error by young Jays second baseman Leo Jimenez … Five of the Jays first six hits on the night were doubles, including an RBI rocket from Vlad Guerrero Jr. in the third to drive in the Jays first run of the night as catcher Brian Serven to cross the plate. The second run came across on an Ernie Clement double in the sixth to score Addison Barger … With the win, the Jays hot streak now includes victories in eight of their previous 12 contests and secured their second season series win at Fenway since 2017 … Cha6-d Green shut things down in the ninth to improve to 16-for-16 in save situations.