IN THE ZONE

Francis goes from player of the week to almost throwing a no-hitter

- GREGOR CHISHOLM

Blue Jays pitcher Bowden Francis struck out 12 and allowed only one hit on Saturday against the Angels at the Rogers Centre.

Blue Jays 3

Angels 1

TODAY

Angels at Blue Jays 1:30 p.m. (Sportsnet)

John Schneider made headlines across the country last October when he used an early hook on starter Jose Berrios. But with righthander Bowden Francis chasing history Saturday, the Blue Jays manager wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

Francis entered the game against the Los Angeles Angels having never thrown more than seven innings or 95 pitches in a big-league start. Fast forward a couple hours to the middle of the eighth, and he had tossed 111 without surrendering a hit.

There were noticeable signs of fatigue late in the game as Francis experienced a slight drop in velocity and misplaced command. It didn’t matter. Barring a noticeable health scare, Schneider was content to send Francis out for the ninth inning with a shot at becoming the second pitcher in franchise history to toss a no-hitter.

Unfortunately for Francis, his bid didn’t advance any further despite the support. Taylor Ward led off the ninth with a solo home run over the wall in centre field and Francis had to settle for eight-plus dominant innings, including 12 strikeouts, in a 3-1 victory.

“Bowden has battled for a lot of years and has gotten to this point, so I didn’t want to take anything away from him,” Schneider said.