Bowden Francis takes the mound and there’s a no-hitter watch?
It’s something we’ve gotten used to seeing over the past month as the 28-year-old has taken no-hit bids into the ninth inning twice and another into the sixth as part of a historic run in which he allowed just one hit and threw at least seven innings four times in six starts.
Wednesday night at Globe Life Field in Texas, Francis was on the hill and a team was hitless into the fifth inning, but this time it was the Blue Jays, stymied by Cody Bradford in a 2-0 loss to the Rangers.
Bradford, a soft-tossing left-hander, retired the first 12 hitters he faced before Alejandro Kirk’s ground ball went off his ankle and into shallow right field for a base hit to start the fifth. Spencer Horwitz followed with a double, but the Jays couldn’t take advantage of what wound up being their best opportunity to score in the game.
