» Bowden Francis is back and Andres Gimenez keeps cleaning up

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It has been a long time coming — and for a beleaguered last-place Blue Jays team it must have felt even longer.

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But after riding 5.1 innings of hitless pitching from last year’s late-season ace, Bowden Francis, the Blue Jays moved above .500 for the first time since April 24, 2024.

That span of 142 games must have felt like an eternity, but now at 3-2 early in the 2025 season, who knows, perhaps it’s a move in the right direction.

The Jays haven’t always been sharp in the early going, but in a difficult month schedule-wise and with a need to gather momentum early, they’ll take it.
Takeaways from a 5-2 victory in front of an early season low crowd of 20,137 at the Rogers Centre.

1. FRANCIS FLIRTS (AGAIN)

It wasn’t as close as the flirtations he had with no-hitters late last season, but the 2025 debut of Francis certainly renewed the promise that the big righty showed late last season.

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Incredibly, it was the fourth time in seven starts that Francis kept an opponent without a hit into the sixth inning. The latest bid was broken up by a one-out homer off the bat of the Nats’ CJ Abrams and followed quickly by another solo shot from James Wood.

More importantly, a line of two hits, three walks and four strikeouts was a timely outing for a rotation that has already seen some turmoil. Jose Berrios, remember, struggled in the opener and veteran Max Scherzer is out for an undetermined time due to his latest thumb ailment.

“The nine-start stretch that he had was pretty historic and to ask him to replicate that would be silly,” manager John Schneider said. “But I do think he has found comfort in starting that routine. He’s learned how to maneuver some situations, too.

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“I think we’re looking for him to be reliable, durable and consistent.”

With a rotation still in flux — and with the fifth man yet to be determined in Scherzer’s absence, it’s critical.

For Francis, there was a little relief in bringing back his good form from last September.

“I felt pretty seamless,” said Francis, who is 5-2 while posting a 1.50 ERA in his last nine starts dating back to last season. “I didn’t feel too jittery. I didn’t feel out of place, like we didn’t leave.

“Mentally is my most important part. I felt like I controlled the time and the game well.”

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2. CLEAN-UP DUTY

While confident they were getting one of the best defensive infielders in the game in Andres Gimenez, Blue Jays coaches were quietly hopeful they would get at least a bump in offence from the former Cleveland Guardian.

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Five games into the season though, who would have expected this?

Hitting fourth in the order once again, Gimenez led off the second inning with a solo home run, his third in five games. That’s three more than each of the sluggers in front of him in Schneider’s lineup — Bo Bichette, Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Anthony Santander.

For good measure, Gimenez added a standup double in the eighth, his second two-bagger of the season. Gimenez was on base all four plate appearances adding a walk and hit by pitch.

Through five games, the slick-fielding second baseman has five extra-base hits and is hitting .333.

“I know he doesn’t look the part,” Schneider said following the game. “And if you’re drawing up a cleanup hitter, it probably looks like (Anthony Santander.) But he’s athletic and he can hit the ball hard.

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“The optics may look weird, but he’s a damn good hitter.”

So far, so good in that regard as Gimenez became the first player in franchise history to hit three homers in his first five games with the team.

3. PITCHING IN

With Scherzer out, Schneider has a decision to make regarding the 40-year-old’s spot in the rotation. Will it be recent call-up, Easton Lucas? Will it be Yariel Rodriguez, who was electric in short relief on Sunday.

The manager wasn’t about to tip his hand on Monday, but it’s clear he was impressed by that one-inning performance out of the bullpen by Rodriguez.

“That was, in my opinion, probably his best professional inning,” Schneider said. “That was pretty good.”

Good enough to shift to a primarily reliever role for the hard-throwing Cuban? We shall see.

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“I don’t want to react to one outing, but we know that (the stuff) is in there,” Schneider said. “That’s been there in his career before. (We’re) still trying to figure out the best way to use that.”

Speaking of the ’pen, Yimi Garcia pitched a shut-down 1-2-3 ninth with a pair of strikes to earn his first save of the season.

UP NEXT

The Jays swing back to the top of the rotation for Game 2 of 3 against the Nats on Tuesday night. That means right-hander Berrios will be looking for a bounce-back effort in his second start of 2025 after getting rocked by the Orioles in the season opener. Righty Trevor Williams is scheduled to start for Washington.

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