Bowden Francis Flirts with History, Continues to Dominate for the Blue Jays
Bowden Francis of the Toronto Blue Jays nearly made MLB history on Saturday. Over his last few starts, he's been absolutely dominant.
History was almost made at the Rogers Centre earlier on Saturday – right-hander Bowden Francis was just three outs away from tossing the second no-hitter in franchise history. Had he finished the game, he would have joined Dave Stieb amongst the short list of pitchers to accomplish the feat in a Blue Jays uniform.
On the day, Francis allowed three walks and hit one batter while striking out a career-high 12 batters, running through the Angels lineup before allowing a home run to Taylor Ward in the top of the ninth to spoil the moment. The right-hander worked with his fastball, splitter, slider, and curveball to mess up the timing of the opposing team hitters, generating 15 swing-and-misses on 117 pitches (71.8%) on the best outing of his career.
For Francis, this is another strong outing amongst a string of starts that has seen the Jays pitcher consistently generate headlines since the calendar turned over into August. After a brief demotion to get stretched back out before the trade deadline, Francis returned to the big leagues in late July to take over Yusei Kikuchi’s spot in the rotation and has been shoving on the mound.
Bowden Francis has been dominant on the mound
Before his latest start, Francis found ways to pitch deep into games and keep opponents off the scoreboard. Through 25 innings and five games (four starts), the Florida product allowed just 14 hits and seven runs (six earned) while striking out 24 batters to two walks.
He held opponents to a .161 average, .170 BAbip, and a .525 OPS while amassing a 2.16 ERA and 3.57 FIP against the Yankees, Cubs, Angels, and Orioles (x2) before Saturday’s outing and has since dropped his ERA to 1.91 and his FIP to 3.51 when the second start against the Angels is included. Francis earned the AL Player of the Week honours last week with such an impressive turn of events and is putting himself back into the conversation this week while flirting with history.
Things haven’t been as rosy for the right-hander this season.
After a strong spring training, the Jays gave him a shot in the rotation to mixed results – 12 runs allowed across 8 1/3 innings – before moving him to the bullpen and then the IL with tendonitis to round out the month of April. Upon his return in early June, Francis was used primarily in the bullpen outside of one spot start and was finding improved results to the tune of a 4.92 FIP while allowing 11 earned runs through 24 innings of work before being sent back down to Buffalo to get stretched back into the starters role.
For Francis, much of his improved success has come from relying on his splitter more as of late – which now ranks at 17.9% usage. It currently sits at a +2 run value and when paired with his four-seam fastball (+6), opponents own a .180 average off the two offerings. The split-finger has generated a 37.3% strikeout rate and the xBA and xSLG sit at .171 and .236 respectively – essentially opposing hitters can’t square the pitch up enough to do any damage.
The curveball and slider offerings offer some different vantage points for any hitters sitting on the fastball or splitter but both pitches have been hit hard this season, something Francis has been seeing an improvement on as of late.
Blue Jays and the 2025 season to contend
Overall, Francis has been almost unhittable since his return from Buffalo and back into the starter’s role, with the right-hander making things interesting as the Blue Jays look to round out the 2024 season and focus on next year.
While the Jays have thrown in the towel for this season, the remaining schedule seems to be an audition of sorts for the younger players – looking to see who will be in consideration for next year when the Blue Jays are set (at least as of now) to contend again with the current core.
If the Florida product can continue to pitch with this momentum for the remainder of the season, he will set himself up nicely for rotation contention next Spring, making things difficult for the coaching staff on who will fill out the rotation outside of the main three of José Berríos, Kevin Gausman, and Chris Bassitt.
For now, the 28-year-old will continue to take advantage of the opportunity put in front of him and look to continue putting up solid results for a Jays squad that hasn’t had much to cheer about this year.
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Tyson Shushkewich grew up in a small farming community just east of Lethbridge, Alberta. He would leave this small town for Halifax, Nova Scotia, and attend…