Fastball

Toronto Blue Jays Pitcher Makes Baseball History with Another Gem on Wednesday

Kudos to Bowden Francis, who made baseball history on Wednesday in a near no-hitter against the New York Mets.

Brady Farkas

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Bowden Francis (44) throws a pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies during the first inning at Rogers Centre on Sept 4.
Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Bowden Francis (44) throws a pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies during the first inning at Rogers Centre on Sept 4. / Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
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The Toronto Blue Jays lost 6-2 to the New York Mets on Wednesday afternoon at Rogers Centre, but the final score doesn't tell the whole story.

New York scored all six runs in the ninth inning after being no-hit for eight innings by Blue Jays right-hander Bowden Francis. Francis lost the no-hitter by surrendering a home run to Francisco Lindor to lead off the ninth.

Unfortunately, near no-hitters are nothing new for Francis, who also took a no-hitter into the ninth inning back in August, only to fall just short.

The two close calls put Francis into his own blend of baseball history, according to Sarah Langs of MLB.com:

Bowden Francis is the only pitcher with multiple no-hit bids of 8+ innings within his first 11 career starts in the majors, in at least the expansion era (since 1961)

h/t @EliasSports + @Spokes_Murphy

And there's also this one:

pitchers with 2 no-hit bids lost in the 9th in a season on record:

2024 Bowden Francis
1989 Nolan Ryan
1988 Dave Stieb
1906 Ed Walsh

Francis, who wasn't even supposed to be in the rotation for this team this season, has been excellent. Currently, he's 8-4 through 25 games. He's got a 3.50 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP. At the age of 28, he's making his first real impact in the big leagues and has helped the Jays absorb the loss of Alek Manoah and Ricky Tiedemann to injury.

The Blue Jays are now 69-77 after the loss and they will take on the St. Louis Cardinals at home on Friday night.

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Brady Farkas
BRADY FARKAS

Brady Farkas is a baseball writer for Fastball on Sports Illustrated/FanNation and the host of 'The Payoff Pitch' podcast which can be found on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Videos on baseball also posted to YouTube. Brady has spent nearly a decade in sports talk radio and is a graduate of Oswego State University. You can follow him on Twitter @WDEVRadioBrady. 

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