Bowden Francis pitches Blue Jays to victory over Nats

Bowden Francis did not allow a hit until the sixth inning, Andres Gimenez homered and the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the visiting Washington Nationals 5-2 on Monday night.

Gimenez was on base four times in the opener of a three-game series, adding a walk, a hit by pitch and a double.

Francis (1-0) finished six innings, allowing two runs, two hits and three walks while striking out four.

CJ Abrams and James Wood hit solo homers for the Nationals, both in the sixth inning as Washington halved a 4-0 deficit.

Gimenez led off the bottom of the second against Washington starter Michael Soroka by lofting a high, 3-1 fastball to right for his third homer of the season.

Toronto scored again in the third when Alan Roden doubled to right with one out and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. short-hopped the wall in the right field corner with a two-out RBI double.

Gimenez walked to lead off the fourth, stole second and scored on Alejandro Kirk's double that deflected off the barrier that juts out to near the line in shallow right. After Will Wagner singled, Kirk scored on a fielder's-choice grounder from Nathan Lukes.

Francis was breezing. The Nationals were not hitting the ball hard in the early innings with one exception coming when Dylan Crews flied out to the center field warning track to end the top of the fifth.

Things changed to open the sixth. Washington's first hits of the game came with one out when Abrams hammered a splitter to right and Wood smashed a fastball to left for homers.

Soroka (0-1) left the game with an injury with a 1-2 count on Gimenez to open the home sixth. The right-hander allowed four runs and five hits with a walk and three strikeouts.

Lucas Sims took over but subsequently was replaced by Colin Poche after George Springer's two-out double. Poche loaded the bases with walks to pinch-hitters Ernie Clement and Davis Schneider before ending the inning on a popup.

Gimenez doubled to left to lead off the home eighth against Eduardo Salazar. Kirk and Springer followed with singles, the latter one scoring Gimenez.

Yimi Garcia earned his first save of the season when he pitched a perfect ninth inning, striking out two.

--Field Level Media