Bowden Francis had the game of his life Saturday afternoon, getting three outs away from a no-hitter.

The Toronto Blue Jays pitcher dominated the Angels lineup, striking out a career-high dozen batters, issuing three walks and coming oh-so-close to a feat accomplished 225 times before. While Francis racked up the pitches, climbing to 111 ahead of the top of the ninth, Blue Jays manager John Schneider said the team had no intention of pulling him until he gave up a hit.

Unfortunately for Francis, the first batter he faced in his final inning was Taylor Ward, who connected on the sixth pitch he saw to send a four-seam fastball 405 ft. over the outfield wall. Chad Green would enter the game, securing the final three outs.

He totalled 117 pitches thrown in the game, far and away the most of his career in a single game, joining three other pitchers to throw over 115 in a game this year: teammates Kevin Gausman (118, July 27th) and Chris Bassitt (115, April 9th), as well as Phillies starter Zack Wheeler (115, June 27th).

Francis started off the game striking out the side, continuing to roll through the Angels relying heavily on his four-seam fastball (49 percent of pitches) and Splitter (34 percent), while mixing in his slider (nine percent), curveball (five percent) and sinker (three percent), too. He continued to stay hot after putting together great performances against the Baltimore Orioles on August 7th, the Angels on the 12th, and the Cubs on the 18th, heading into this afternoon’s game.

But Angels outfielder Taylor Ward wasn’t too impressed.

“I really don’t know,” he told MLB.com’s Julia Kreuz after the game. “You know, I thought that everything was hittable. Maybe to other guys, he made better pitches. A lot of guys were talking about his split and that being on. But personally, I didn’t think it was anything special.”

A curious comment. While Ward broke up Francis’ no-hitter bid, he also struck out, flew out and got hit by a pitch in this game. In Francis’ August 12th start against the Angels, Ward struck out and flew out against him. The Angels should’ve done just that if his pitches were so hittable. Instead, across both performances, Francis held them to just two hits.

For as impressive as Francis’ performance was, it was also great to see Schneider and Pete Walker let him run with this one. They easily could’ve taken him out of the game, citing increased pitch counts, but instead they let be what baseball is all about: moments.

This was a big one for Francis as he continued to show why he’s worthy of staying in that starting rotation for the rest of the year, and potentially into next year, too.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.