Bowden Francis pitches six innings as Blue Jays win third straight, beat Mariners 3-1

TORONTO (AP) — Bowden Francis pitched six innings to win for the first time in three starts, George Springer had two hits and scored twice and the Toronto Blue Jays beat the Seattle Mariners 3-1 on Friday night for their third straight victory.

Anthony Santander and Alan Roden drove in runs with sacrifice flies and catcher Alejandro Kirk hit an RBI single to help the Blue Jays improve to 8-3 at home.

Francis (2-2) allowed one run and five hits, walked one and struck out five. Jeff Hoffman finished in the ninth for his fifth save in five chances.

Springer returned to the lineup after not starting the previous three games to rest his sore left wrist. He singled and scored on Roden’s sacrifice fly in the second inning, then doubled and scored on Kirk’s hit in the third.

Mariners right-hander Bryan Woo (2-1) allowed three runs and a season-high seven hits in seven innings in his first losing start of 2025.

Seattle’s Rowdy Tellez hit a solo home run on the first pitch he saw from Francis in the second inning, his second. The Blue Jays traded Tellez to Milwaukee for Francis and right-hander Trevor Richards in July 2021.

Seattle’s Randy Arozarena got caught in a rundown between third and home on Luke Raley’s two-out double in the fourth. Kirk chased Arozarena down to end the threat.

Blue Jays right fielder Addison Barger matched a Blue Jays record with three outfield assists, becoming the third player to do it and the first since Rick Bosetti in 1979. Barger’s throw to third to retire Tellez trying to advance on a fly ball in the fifth was measured at 98.8 mph, faster than any pitch thrown in the game. Woo and Hoffman each had fastballs measured at 98.0 mph.

RHP Logan Gilbert (1-2, 2.38 ERA) was scheduled to start for the Mariners on Saturday against Blue Jays RHP José Berríos (1-1, 5.16).

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Bowden Francis (44) throws to a Seattle Mariners batter in the first inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo (22) throws to a Toronto Blue Jays batter in the first inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto Blue Jays' Bo Bichette, left, is safe at second with a stolen base ahead of a tag by Seattle Mariners second baseman Miles Mastrobuoni (21) in the first inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo (22) throws to a Toronto Blue Jays batter in the first inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto Blue Jays' George Springer (4) takes a lead off first base as Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Bryan Woo (22) throws to a Blue Jays batter in the second inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Seattle Mariners' Rowdy Tellez (23) hits a solo home run against the Toronto Blue Jays in the second inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Seattle Mariners' J.P. Crawford (3) moves away from an inside pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays in the third inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Bowden Francis (44) throws to a Seattle Mariners batter in the first inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, April 18, 2025. (Jon Blacker/The Canadian Press via AP)

When NBC carried the Kentucky Derby for the first time in 2001, the broadcast lasted only 90 minutes.

On Saturday, when it carries the Run for the Roses for the 25th time, 90 minutes wouldn’t be enough for all the feature stories that will run leading up to post time.

NBC Sports will present 12 1/2 hours of coverage across two days on NBC, USA Network and Peacock. There will be five hours for Friday’s Kentucky Oaks on USA Network and Peacock. Saturday’s coverage begins on USA Network at noon ET before moving to NBC at 2:30 p.m. while Peacock will stream all 7 1/2 hours.

“So much has changed since we first started in 2001. At that time, we thought 90 minutes to cover a two-minute race. How are we going to fill all this time? Now we are still trying to figure out how we’re going to get this story in and that story in because there are so many great stories to tell,” said Donna Brothers, the only member of the broadcast team involved with all 25 Derbys on NBC.

NBC has done five hours of coverage on the main network on Derby Day since 2018. Sam Flood, the executive producer and president of NBC Sports Production, said the true evolution behind adding more hours while making the coverage appeal to a cross-section of viewers began after he produced his first Derby in 2006.

“I remember getting done with the show, which I think was two hours. I kept thinking, we can do so much more,” Flood said. “There are so many assets here that should be showcased, and that’s when we started blowing it out, adding more hours and slowly shifting more and more hours on to NBC and off the cable platforms.”

The expansion has also included the Kentucky Oaks. It started airing on Bravo in 2009 before moving to the NBC Sports Network and then USA Network.

The Derby broadcast has evolved into one of the most diverse sports events that NBC does yearly and is on par with the Olympics, which it carries once every two years, and the Super Bowl, which it has once every four years.

It also might be the only place where a viewer can see fashion, recipes from one of the hosts of Bravo’s “Top Chef,” and race predictions from NBC News chief data analyst Steve Kornacki.

Mike Tirico, the host of NBC’s coverage since 2017, said doing the Derby served as good preparation for hosting the Olympics as well as a stint as a guest host on the “Today” show last week.

“My time doing the Derby helped me to do the ‘Today’ show last week, not vice versa,” he said. “This show is so cool. It goes from speed figures to fascinators. It goes from betting to bourbon. We cover it all in the five hours with a great team of people who dive in and take their space and own it. We all build towards the race. The audience does the same.”

Tirico succeeded Tom Hammond as host. Hammond, a University of Kentucky graduate, was a guiding force around NBC’s early coverage and introducing the sport’s most prominent personalities to viewers.

Lindsay Schanzer, the supervising producer of NBC’s coverage, said one of the advantages of having nearly 4 1/2 hours leading up to post time at 6:57 p.m. ET is the chance to focus on the stories of the 20 horses that will line up in the starting gate.

Among the stories planned are the return of trainer Bob Baffert — who served a three-year suspension after Medina Spirit failed a drug test — 89-year-old trainer D. Wayne Lukas and Michael McCarthy, the trainer of prerace favorite Journalism, whose family was displaced from home in Southern California due to the wildfires.

Because of the many different topics in the broadcast, Schanzer has an interesting approach in how she books the coverage with what she calls a colors document, where each element of coverage has its own color.

“I like to look at it from a broad perspective to make sure there’s not too much of one color in one area, and every color is kind of represented across the show so that if you’re watching it, you’re getting a little bit of a taste of everything,” she said. “One color could be a fashion element, one could be Kornacki’s insights, one could be an interview with a horseman. I try to look at it in a holistic way like that.”

The approach has certainly worked. Last year’s broadcast averaged 16.7 million viewers, the largest Derby audience since 1989. That included an average minute audience of 714,000 streaming on Peacock.

Overall, 11 of the past 15 Derbys held in May have averaged at least 15 million.

“We’ve had all kinds of things happen (since 2001), and that’s what’s so unique about the sport, but specifically about the Derby,” said Jon Miller, NBC Sports president of acquisitions and partnerships. “You have 20 horses that come into that gate and long shots that can pull off the upset. You have favorites, you have great ownership stories, and you have legendary trainers. Who knows who is going to surprise this year? But that’s what’s great about it.”

AP horse racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing and Derby coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/kentucky-derby

Horses workout at Churchill Downs Wednesday, April 30, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)