Toronto Blue Jays' Bowden Francis Gets Another No-Hitter Broken Up in 9th Inning

Bowden Francis held the New York Mets without a hit for 8.0 innings Wednesday afternoon, but Francisco Lindor broke up the bid with a solo home run in the ninth.

Sep 11, 2024; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Bowden Francis (44) throws a pitch against the New York Mets during the first inning at Rogers Centre. / Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images

Bowden Francis, one of the hottest pitchers in baseball over the past six weeks, came ever so close to immortality on Wednesday.

The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander had a no-hitter through eight innings against the New York Mets. Despite sitting at 108 pitches to that point, manager John Schneider kept Francis in the game, trusting that the breakout 28-year-old could protect the team's 1-0 lead and make history along the way.

Instead, Francis gave up a leadoff home run to Francisco Lindor.

THAT SEEMED PRETTY VALUABLE@Lindor12BC | #LGM pic.twitter.com/CRRB1g7aMq

— New York Mets (@Mets) September 11, 2024

That ended Francis' no-hit and shutout bids, as well as his shot at earning a ninth win this season. Chad Green came in to relieve Francis, ultimately allowing two sacrifice flies, before Génesis Cabrera gave up a three-run home run to Francisco Alvarez.

It wasn't unfamiliar territory for Francis, who also took a no-hitter into the ninth against the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 24. That time, it was Taylor Ward who broke it up with a leadoff homer.

The Blue Jays held on to win 3-1 that night, though, while they went on to lose 6-2 to the Mets on Wednesday.

Had Francis been able to seal the deal, he would have joined Dave Stieb as the only pitchers in Blue Jays history to toss a no-hitter. Stieb famously took four no-hitters into the ninth inning in five years before he was finally got to the finish line in 1990.

Francis finished Wednesday with a Game Score of 76, having allowed one hit and one earned run across 8.0 innings while recording just one strikeout. He posted higher Game Scores in each of his four starts between Aug. 12 and Aug. 29, giving up just six hits, three walks and two earned runs and striking out 32 in that span.

That historic stretch helped Francis earn AL Pitcher of the Month for August, and even though his winning streak ended Sept. 4, he still managed to post a quality start in the loss. Since rejoining Toronto's rotation on July 29, Francis is now 5-2 with a 1.83 ERA, 0.537 WHIP and .128 batting average against.

With the loss, the Blue Jays dropped to 69-78 on the season. That leaves Toronto 9.0 games out of the third AL Wild Card spot with just 15 games remaining.

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