Things can only go up from here, right?
That’s what the Toronto Blue Jays are banking on coming off a horrendous night in Houston, where the Astros completed their 17th no-hitter in franchise history – the most in the majors since 1962 – en route to a dominating 10-0 victory.
The offence couldn’t solve right-hander Ronel Blanco, who went the distance while striking out seven in his eighth career big-league start. If not for a pair of walks from George Springer, the only player to reach base a night ago, Blanco would’ve spun baseball’s 25th perfect game.
Much of the blame was directed to a struggling lineup that’s proven inconsistent across the first five games of the 2024 campaign, and rightly so. But they weren’t the only culprit that contributed to this ugly loss. The pitching staff had a say in it, too.
Finding a way to scratch out a victory without recording a hit is incredibly challenging and, in most cases, next to impossible. But it’s 10 times harder when your team can’t stop its opponent from scoring, a dilemma that was front and centre for Bowden Francis in his forgettable starting debut Monday night at Minute Maid Park.
Francis, who won the fifth starter’s job out of camp, wasn’t dealt an easy matchup in his first career big-league start as he went toe-to-toe with a potent lineup that featured the likes of Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker and Alex Bregman. As it turned out, navigating the bottom half of Houston’s offence was just as difficult.
The 27-year-old toughed it out for 5.1 innings, preserving an already stretched-thin bullpen as much as possible. But that was one of the few silver linings on a night when he surrendered seven runs on 10 hits – including three home runs – and a walk.
However, as miserable as Monday’s contest was, Francis pitched a bit better than the box score suggests, at least from a glass-half-full perspective. After all, he did issue a career-high seven punchouts, three of which came against Bregman.
Houston’s All-Star third baseman is likely sick of Francis’ knee-buckling curveball, as he recorded a swinging strike all five times he faced it – three of those occurred in two-strike counts. He was also one of just two hitters from the starting lineup held without a hit, with Alvarez being the other.
The Blue Jays right-handed starter effectively neutralized two of the Astros’ most feared offensive contributors. While he wasn’t as successful at containing the rest of the lineup, much of the damage was a result of quality at-bats rather than poorly located pitches, primarily against his four-seamer.
Take Francis’ first pitch of the night, for example. He threw a letter-high fastball to Altuve that he clubbed into left field at 103.9 m.p.h. for a leadoff single.
Granted, it probably caught a little too much of the plate, even for a 94-m.p.h. heater. It’s also worth noting that Alejandro Kirk was setting up away for that pitch to finish on the outer half. Still, there aren’t many hitters that can turn on pitches like that, especially in 0-0 counts.
The only issue, of course, is Francis missed his spot to someone who could.
Altuve’s single was one of the six hits against the 6-foot-5 hurler’s four-seamer. The next two also occurred in the first inning via a two-run shot from Tucker and a no-doubter off Yainer Diaz’s bat that travelled 435 feet onto the train tracks in left centre, amounting to a three-run frame.
But just like the heater to Altuve, neither of the ones thrown to Tucker and Diaz finished in dangerous locations. And yet, they each landed over the wall for a home run.
After swinging through a high-and-away fastball to begin the at-bat, Tucker adjusted and made sure not to miss it again, sending the next pitch he saw to the opposite field over the Crawford Boxes in left – which would’ve left the yard in 12 of the 30 big-league parks, including Rogers Centre.
First blast of 2024 for Kyle Tucker! pic.twitter.com/c11Tb3Onp2
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 2, 2024
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Two batters later, Diaz somehow destroyed a four-seamer that was an inch or two, probably more, above the strike zone for his first of two bombs on the night.
YAINER DIAZ ARE YOU KIDDING ME pic.twitter.com/5TgNW080W0
— Houston Astros (@astros) April 2, 2024
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On top of those mystifying home runs, Francis also endured a fair share of batted-ball misfortune with his fastball, primarily against centre-fielder Jake Meyers, who registered a pair of singles against heaters off the plate inside.
There was also the unfortunate ending to Francis’ rough night, as Jeremy Peña smacked a hanging slider into the ground that deflected off the mound and into centre field for a single, scoring the sixth and seventh runs against Toronto’s starter. Had it stayed in the infield, it likely would’ve been the second out of the sixth inning.
The harsh reality is that facing the Astros – a team that posted the second-highest run value (47.3) against four-seamers last season, behind only the Atlanta Braves (71.9) – wasn’t a favourable matchup for Francis.
His command was far from perfect, particularly with his slider that routinely missed over the heart of the plate and was responsible for two of his 10 hard-hit balls against. But sometimes you have to tip your cap to the other team, who, in this case, perfectly executed its game plan.
Francis will have a chance to recover, with his next turn lined up for this Sunday against the New York Yankees. But that’ll be another pivotal test, considering they’re off to a 5-0 start powered by an offence that features a 130 wRC+ – and produced the sixth-highest run value (33.5) versus four-seamers last season.
With that in mind, we may witness an increased usage of secondary weapons from the 2017 seventh-round selection in his next time out. He made a similar in-game adjustment in his season debut, throwing more breaking balls than fastballs in the second, third, fifth and sixth innings against Houston.
Any result versus the Yankees should be an improvement from Francis’ first attempt at starting in the majors. Assuming a few things break his way this time, he should be poised for a more respectable outing, one that looks closer to the pitcher who earned a 1.73 ERA and a 19.9 per cent K-BB rate difference in 20 appearances a season ago.
The Blue Jays need as many quality starts from Francis as possible amidst this early stretch against American League playoff contenders. He is all they have for now, with Alek Manoah still building up in Flordia and others like Yariel Rodriguez and Ricky Tiedemann developing their craft at Triple-A.
ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO
