The word unhittable gets thrown around a little too much in baseball circles. But, for a nine-start stretch at the end of 2024, Bowden Francis approached that vaunted status.

The 28-year-old posted a 1.53 ERA in his historic streak, came crushingly close to multiple no-hitters, and rattled off his first real run of sustained success at the highest level. Brilliance like that is hard to repeat, unless you’re prime Randy Johnson, Clayton Kershaw, or Jacob deGrom. But that’s exactly what Bowden Francis did in his 2025 debut, at least for five innings.

“It felt pretty seamless,” Francis said. “I didn’t feel too jittery. I didn’t feel out of place. I felt like we didn’t leave.”

Blue Jays fans got used to counting hitless innings with Francis on the mound late last season, as he pushed two no-hitters into the ninth in 2024 and finished four outings with just one hit against. The zeroes kept coming on Monday, as Francis mowed through 18-straight Nationals batters before giving up back-to-back homers in the sixth inning to break up the no-hit bid. Even with consecutive bombs, Francis delivered a quality start and picked up right where he left off last fall.

After James Wood reached on a walk in the first frame Monday, Francis pushed to home. The 28-year-old starter released a tumbling splitter to the dish, freezing Nathaniel Lowe in place as the pinpoint pitch caught the corner of the zone. As the home plate umpire leaned back to call the strikeout, Francis put his head down and humbly walked off the field.

That new splitter was the fuel for Francis’ rocket ship to success in 2024, becoming his second-most used delivery by the end of the season. Opposing batters hit just .169 against the split in 2024 and Francis didn’t allow a single homer off it in 287 throws. Coming out of the same high slot as his fastball, the splitter helps disguise the heat to keep hitters guessing — exactly what he needed to launch from Quad-A mediocrity to legit weapon.

“When he is throwing enough splitters to pair with his fastball, and he’s locating his fastball, he’s pretty good,” Schneider said. “I think that was the biggest difference last year.”

On Monday, Francis threw 21 splitters and earned 50% whiffs on the pitch. As Andrés Giménez homered and Toronto tacked on insurance runs, the starter kept putting up zeroes. At some point, the hitless innings aren’t an aberration — 10 starts may not be enough, but we’re getting close.

Regardless of how believable Francis’ run of dominance is, it’s exactly what the Blue Jays need right now. After José Berríos was rocked on Opening Day and Max Scherzer went on the Injured List with a nagging thumb injury, innings are precious for a team that’s struggled to cover middle innings in relief.

Francis pitched at least six innings in seven of his final nine outings of 2024 — a big reason he finished with the second-most bWAR among all Blue Jays pitchers (despite making just 13 starts). He had no trouble going deep against Washington, either, motoring through six innings on just 91 deliveries.

Expecting Francis to continue his unhittable run that closed 2024 would be unreasonable. Schneider was hoping Francis could be “reliable, durable, and consistent” in 2025, the manager said, finding a middle ground between his early-career struggles and the late-2024 dominance.

On Monday, there was no middle ground. Even with the sixth-inning homers, Francis looked the same unhittable pitcher that flashed late last season. At some point, it’s time to raise expectations.