For the second time in his final 4 begins, Toronto Blue Jays right-hander Bowden Francis misplaced a no-hit bid by permitting a leadoff house run within the ninth inning. 

After working eight hitless innings towards the New York Mets in what turned out to be a 6-2 Mets win (field rating), Francis within the prime of the ninth allowed this homer off the bat of Mets shortstop and Nationwide League MVP darkhorse Francisco Lindor: 

This shut name comes a mere 18 days after Francis misplaced a no-hitter within the ninth because of a blast from Taylor Ward of the Los Angeles Angels.

From the standpoint of the non-contending Jays, that snuffed out what would have been simply the second no-hitter in franchise historical past. The primary and nonetheless solely was by Dave Stieb on Sept. 2, 1990. Associated content material forthcoming: 

Francis’ bid would have been the fifth no-hitter of the 2024 season, and his close to miss got here precisely one week after Shota Imanaga and a pair of Chicago Cubs relievers no-hit the Pittsburgh Pirates. General, Francis’ would have been the 327th acknowledged no-hitter within the historical past of Main League Baseball.

Francis has allowed zero hits or one hit in 4 of his final six begins, and every of these 4 begins lasted no less than seven innings. He is additionally permitted simply 12 hits in his final 43 innings pitched. Additionally of observe is that Francis on Wednesday struck out just one batter in his eight innings of labor. That introduced him near a uncommon feat, as no-hitters go: 

That is significantly notable within the present high-strikeout period. 

One other key to Francis’ bid for historical past was his environment friendly eighth inning. Francis entered the body with a rising pitch depend of 102, however he was capable of retire the aspect on simply six pitches, which set him as much as work the ninth below an affordable workload. Lindor, although, rendered all of it meaningless.

After Lindor’s clutch homer chased Francis and tied the sport, the Mets had been capable of pile on 5 extra runs on the expense of the Toronto bullpen and notch a important victory. The unlikely win in Toronto pushed the Mets to 80-66 on the season and most critically maintains their maintain on the third and last Nationwide League wild-card spot. The Braves, who’re at the moment tied for a similar spot, play later Wednesday night.

The Mets’ 6-2 victory is the most important hole by a crew being no-hit via eight innings because the 1990 White Sox towards the Yankees.