NEW YORK — Remarkable as Bowden Francis’ second-half dominance last year was — highlighted by a 0.60 WHIP over 65 innings after the all-star break and two no-hit bids carried into the ninth inning — some wonder lingered about his 2025 encore.
As pitching coach Pete Walker put it, “everybody would be dreaming to think he's going to do that every time out, but first time out (with 5.1 no-hit innings to begin a six-inning, two-run outing against Washington) he does it, so I wouldn't put anything past him at this point.”
“He's a very determined, focused individual,” Walker continued. “He knows his game and that's the biggest thing in the major-leagues. When you figure out your game, you run with it. We don't have to make adjustments right now. We don't have to add pitches. We don't have to do anything except execute pitches and attack hitters.”
Francis once again demonstrated that during a cool and grey Sunday at Citi Field, when he held down the New York Mets — one of the teams he no-hit for eight innings last year — to a pair of runs over 5.1 innings with six strikeouts in what finished as a 2-1 Toronto Blue Jays loss, capping a three-game sweep.
On a club still finding itself in the early weeks of the season, in the bullpen and at the plate, too, Francis’ continued growth is essential.
Max Scherzer’s thumb injury (he had had hoped to resume playing catch Friday but didn’t this weekend) leaves a void in the rotation that, most likely, will be filled by Easton Lucas again Tuesday in Boston. As bullpen roles and workloads continue to be ironed out, the Blue Jays couldn’t afford much, if any, giveback from Francis.
His first two starts of the season alleviated any concerns about that.
“Last year showed us a lot down the stretch … it's easy to fall back on last year's success and think you have it figured out and he hasn't done that,” said manager John Schneider. “So it's been cool to watch him evolve. It's been cool to watch him hang around with Kevin (Gausman), Chris (Bassitt) and Max (Scherzer) now and talk through some things. Looking back to last year, he's in a totally different spot.”
Driving that is what Walker called an “understanding of who you are and not trying to do too much. We need to keep him right there.”
Locking in his fastball, splitter and curveball allows Francis to do that precisely.
“If I can get my three pitches going, I think I have a good probability of a good outcome and kind of use the defence, K's will come here and there,” he said. “Just don't try to do too much. Keep being myself, I guess.”
Saturday’s late-inning bullpen implosion in a 3-2 loss and a difficult weekend at the plate – when they scored only three runs on 18 hits with 12 walks and didn’t homer – underlined how that’s not the case elsewhere on the club right now.
Their only run Sunday came when Andres Gimenez was hit by a David Peterson pitch with the bases loaded in the fifth inning, cutting into a 2-0 deficit. Alejandro Kirk promptly popped out against reliever Max Kranick to end that rally, the tying run was stranded at second in the eighth and again in the ninth, when closer Edwin Diaz hit two batters before getting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on a groundout to close the win out.
At issue once again is a lack of slug with runners in scoring position, a carry-over problem from last season. While the Blue Jays rank eighth in the majors with a .257 average and 16th with a .372 slug, those numbers drop to .231 (which is 19th) and .286 (25th) with runners in scoring position.
They’ve hit only five home runs through their 5-5 start, each a solo shot.
“Bullpen gets obviously a lot of attention when there are close games and rightfully so but I think scoring takes care of that and got all the confidence in the world in these guys to score,” said Schneider. “It's a matter of time I think until we're hitting the ball with a little bit more authority, especially at the top. Those guys are going to start driving the ball and just makes everything else kind of fall into place.”
Bo Bichette, Guerrero and Santander are each looking for their first home run, while slugging .357, .333 and .222 respectively.
“Not at my best right now but working hard to be able to feel when I'm at my best,” is how Santander, who has one double this season and had one hit and four walks over the weekend versus the Mets, described where he’s at right now. His focal point is to “be on time with the fastball. Don't let the ball get too deep on my hands. I've been working a lot with the hitting coaches to do that and try to not chase too many pitches.”
The Mets pressed the entire Blue Jays lineup and was especially effective with runners in scoring position, holding them to 2-for-21 in the series, including 0-for-8 Sunday. An offensive outburst would help take some of the burden off the pitching staff.
“Pitching-wise, we are doing a really good job. We need the offence to step up. We have to stay confident, it's still early, and just find a way to score runs,” said Santander. “For now we have to take our walks, our base hits until the damage is coming.”
NOTES: George Springer wasn’t in the starting lineup lower back spasms caused by a collision with the right-field wall forced him from Saturday’s game, but he did make an appearance Sunday as a pinch-runner in the eighth inning. Subbing in for Alejandro Kirk after a two-out walk, Springer stole second but ended up stranded there. John Schneider said Springer was OK to run but had that spot in the batting order come up again, Will Wagner would have come in to hit. … The Blue Jays open a four-game series at Boston on Monday, when Jose Berrios is slated to start against Richard Fitts.
COMMENTS
When submitting content, please abide by our submission guidelines, and avoid posting profanity, personal attacks or harassment. Should you violate our submissions guidelines, we reserve the right to remove your comments and block your account. Sportsnet reserves the right to close a story’s comment section at any time.