Bowden Francis pulls off Blue Jays feat not seen since 2016 RA Dickey
This has been a difficult season for the Toronto Blue Jays. Despite being loaded with talent throughout their lineup, the Blue Jays find themselves in last place in the American League East. Many observers expected the Blue Jays to compete with the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees for the division title and have an excellent chance to earn a Wild Card spot. But despite their 65-70 record, there have been some recent bright spots. One of those has been the performance of pitcher Bowden Francis.
Bowden Francis is the first Blue Jays pitcher to allow 0 hits through 5 innings in back-to-back starts since R.A. Dickey from May 29 – June 3, 2016#TOTHECORE pic.twitter.com/zo5Ae0qcM9
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) August 30, 2024
The 28-year-old right hander has been on fire throughout the month of August, and his hot streak continued Thursday night at Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox. Francis pitched 7.0 innings of scoreless baseball. Francis allowed just one soft single off the bat of Nick Sogard and he did not walk a batter while striking out five. The Blue Jays came away with a 2-0 victory and that allowed them to take three of five games in the series.
That performance would be notable enough on its own, but it came on the heels of a brilliant performance August 24 against the Los Angeles Angels. Francis pitched 8.0 innings in that game and gave up one hit and one earned run in a 3-1 Toronto victory.
Francis did not allow a hit through the first five innings in either game. As a result, he was able to join former Blue Jays pitcher R.A. Dickey in allowing no hits in consecutive five-inning efforts. Dickey’s achievement came during the 2016 season.
Francis has dominated in his last four starts
Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
It’s not just the Red Sox and and Angels who have been dominated by Francis’ command, control and execution of his pitches. In the two games prior to those two spectacular efforts, he beat the Chicago White Sox by a 1-0 margin and he also had a second victory over the Angels. That win was a 4-2 effort. He pitched 7.0 innings in both of those games.
Throughout the four-game stretch, Francis has a 32-3 strikeout to walk ratio. He also has a 0.31 WHIP throughout those starts — and that’s the best WHIP ever for any pitcher in four consecutive games when the pitcher has thrown at least 20.0 innings.
Francis was opposed by Kutter Crawford of the Red Sox and he was also effective. He threw 6.2 innings for Boston and gave up two hits and two earned runs. Vladimir Guerrero drove in the first run of the game — it proved to be the winner — when he doubled off the centerfield wall in the third inning. Third baseman Ernie Clement drove in the other run for the Blue Jays.
The Blue Jays go to Minnesota for a three-game series with the Twins, while the Red Sox will travel to Detroit for a three-game series with the Tigers.
The post Bowden Francis pulls off Blue Jays feat not seen since 2016 RA Dickey appeared first on ClutchPoints.
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