SEATTLE -- We have seen every extreme of Bowden Francis -- some good, some bad.
Last season, Francis put together one of the best stretches we’ve ever seen from a Blue Jays pitcher and carried two no-hitters into the ninth inning, each time reaching out to shake Dave Stieb’s hand before falling just short. It was the best story of a bad season.
The early days of 2025 have shown us the other end of the spectrum, where Francis leads Major League Baseball with 12 home runs allowed. Finally, though, Francis found the happy middle. Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Mariners, the Blue Jays’ third in a row, is the version of Francis they’ve been looking for.
“That was big,” Francis said. “We had timely hitting and we just kept crawling back. There was just a good energy in the dugout that kept fueling me. We fed off each other."
Francis was as efficient as he’s been all season, needing just 89 pitches to cruise through 6 2/3 innings of three-run ball on a night the Blue Jays desperately needed some length out of their starter with a gassed bullpen. Yes, Francis allowed another home run -- a solo shot to Rowdy Tellez in the second -- but he survived it. The home runs are still worrying, but teammate José Berríos is a useful example of how to allow a few long balls without posting a 6.00 ERA.
“I think he kind of got away from what he was good at, meaning mixing his pitches and being deceptive with his fastball,” manager John Schneider said. “When he’s good, he’s locating. Tonight, he did. He was really efficient with his pitch count, too.”
His timing couldn’t have been better. A handful of the Blue Jays’ top relievers, including Yimi Garcia, were not available Saturday after heavy workloads recently. Mason Fluharty gave the Blue Jays his most impressive outing as a big leaguer as he continues to be one of the best surprises of 2025 and Jeff Hoffman slammed the door shut, but Francis giving the Blue Jays 6 2/3 frames instead of 4 2/3 made all the difference.
“That’s what I want to do. I want to eat innings,” Francis said. “I want to save the bullpen. I want to show that I can post every five days and be a durable guy.”
While the Blue Jays would love to have the 2024 version of Francis forever, that’s just not realistic. The Francis we saw Saturday is exactly what this organization needs, especially as it faces a dangerous lack of pitching depth with Max Scherzer still working his way back from a tricky, recurring thumb issue.
The Blue Jays have already been forced to turn to Easton Lucas for four starts, José Ureña for one and a piggyback combination of Yariel Rodriguez and Eric Lauer for another. Jake Bloss, the Blue Jays’ No. 6 prospect, was beginning to turn a corner in Triple-A, but he left his last outing with an injury a week ago and there still hasn’t been an update on his status.
They’re patching the holes in the hull until Scherzer returns, but if this rotation springs another leak, that’s when this gets scary.
So much can change with just one day, though.
Now, thanks to Francis, the Blue Jays have a relatively fresh bullpen going into the Sunday finale behind Ureña. There’s suddenly a sense of momentum again, too, and Schneider has always believed in the power of momentum.
“It’s crazy how this game works,” Schneider said. “From the fourth inning of Game 3 in Anaheim to now, it feels way different than before that. It’s a real thing. Guys feel it and feed off of it. It’s real. Whether it’s a big hit from [Addison] Barger, a big hit and run, but you win a few games in a row and you kind of forget the things you’ve been going through. I loved the way we’ve played the last few days.”
Eventually, the Blue Jays will need some dominant starts from this rotation. Eventually, they’ll need a 12-1 win to rest the bullpen and an offensive outburst with five home runs in a single game. In the meantime, though, they simply need players to nail their own roles and play to their own talents, which hasn’t happened every night.
It’s exactly what Francis did Saturday, giving himself a clear path forward at just the right time.