For eight innings on Wednesday afternoon, the Mets offense was nowhere to be found.

They only needed one inning to announce their arrival and break through for a crucial 6-2 victory over the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre.

After Blue Jays starting pitcher Bowden Francis held the Mets without a hit for the first eight innings, Francisco Lindor played the role of spoiler. Then, the rest of the Mets lineup fell in line.

Lindor blasted a belt-high fastball over the right-field fence to even the score 1-1. After Francis was removed, the Mets drew three walks and collected a single against Chad Green before surging ahead on sacrifice flies by Pete Alonso and Starling Marte.

"I've never quantified how big my hits are, but it felt really good," Lindor told reporters. "It was one of those hits that I could tell the vibes in the dugout just lifted. (Jose Iglesias) told (Mark) Vientos, Pete and me in the pitching change, 'Let's give everything we got.' That's literally what we went up to the box and did."

Francisco Alvarez broke the game open with a three-run home run to lift the Mets from the brink of a disheartening defeat to their fifth straight series victory before they head back south to face the Phillies across three games beginning on Friday.

The win helped the Mets improve to 80-66 and move a half-game ahead of the Braves for the final wild card spot, with the latter due to face the Nationals on Wednesday night.

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Lindor's 31st home run of the season ensured that the Mets would not be no-hit for the first time since Oct. 3, 2015, when Max Scherzer did it as a member of the Nationals.

"MVP. That's basically what I can say right now," Carlos Mendoza told reporters. "On a night where we're about to get no-hit and for him to put together in that at-bat and come through in a big situation when we needed it the most. It just got us going."

And then the Mets piled it on and broke away to leave Francis' gem in the rear-view mirror.

Francis used 102 pitches to get through seven innings. After the Blue Jays had a few relievers warming in the bullpen, manager John Schneider stuck with the right-hander, who needed only six pitches to get through the eighth.

The Blue Jays right-hander only struck out one Mets batter in his eight innings of work.

The Mets' first baserunner did not come until the top of the fifth inning Pete Alonso was hit by a first-pitch sinker. Francis also walked Marte in the inning and hit Jose Iglesias in the top of sixth inning.

The Mets had some close calls to break up the no-hit bid in the first seven innings. In the fifth inning, Brandon Nimmo hit a 109 mph line drive into right field, but it was tracked down by Nathan Lukes. In the sixth inning, Harrison Bader drove a pitch to deep left field, but Davis Schneider made a leaping catch while colliding into the wall.

"We've seen it in the past when no-hitters, there's always a couple of defensive plays, balls hit right at people, but you can't get too far ahead and think the worst," Mendoza said. "You just gotta continue to have good at-bats and eventually you know something good is going to happen."

Francis' performance overshadowed another gem from the Mets' Sean Manaea, who allowed just one earned run on three hits and four walks in 6? innings. He struck out eight but escaped with a no-decision thanks to Lindor's lift.

The Blue Jays' lone run came in the fourth inning when Manaea gave up back-to-back singles to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ernie Clement, walked a batter and Schneider drove in a run on a groundout. Manaea picked up a strikeout and ground ball to get out of the inning without another run.

"The walk is the only thing thing in my head where I was like, 'I put myself in this situation.'" Manaea said. "The hard-hit ball from Vladdy and then the bloop hit and then the walk, it wasn't like I was beating myself up, it kinda just happened to be. I'm like we gotta keep making pitches, continue to do that and got out of that. That was huge."

The Mets offense had been scuffling since winning their ninth straight game on Saturday against the Reds.

In the series finale on Sunday, they were held to one run on four hits in a loss. They managed to win the series opener with the Blue Jays on Monday with three runs on three hits in a 3-2 win, but then scratched across only two runs on six hits on Tuesday.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Bowden Francis no-hitter ends with Francisco Lindor home run