TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays fired Manager Charlie Montoyo on Wednesday and promoted bench coach John Schneider to interim manager for the remainder of the season.
Triple-A manager Casey Candaele was named interim bench coach.
The 13th manager in Blue Jays history, and the first from Puerto Rico, Montoyo went 236-236 in parts of four seasons. Toronto beat Philadelphia on Tuesday to snap a four-game losing streak and improve to 46-42, which would put them in the playoffs as a wild-card team if the season ended Wednesday despite being in fourth place in the AL East.
The Blue Jays are 3-9 in July. They went 1-6 on a road trip against Oakland and Seattle that ended Sunday with a four-game sweep by the Mariners.
Toronto’s skid started July 2, when it was swept in a doubleheader against Tampa Bay. Montoyo and first base coach Mark Budzinksi left the dugout during Game 2 after learning of the death of Budzinski’s teenage daughter, Julia.
Several members of the Blue Jays’ organization flew together to Virginia on Monday’s off day to attend Julia Budzinski’s funeral.
Montoyo, 57, replaced John Gibbons as Blue Jays manager after the end of the 2018 season. Montoyo’s contract was extended through 2023 on April 1.
Montoyo oversaw a tumultuous period in Blue Jays history, with the team playing home games in three cities last season, including two minor league parks, because of border restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Toronto also played its 2020 home schedule at its Triple-A stadium in Buffalo, New York.
Montoyo led Toronto to a 32-28 record and a wild-card playoff berth in the expanded playoffs that followed the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, but the Blue Jays were swept by eventual AL champion Tampa Bay in the opening round. Toronto went 91-71 in 2021 and missed tying for the AL wild card by one game.
Before joining the Blue Jays, Montoyo spent six seasons on Tampa Bay’s major league coaching staff, including his final three as bench coach. Prior to that, he spent 18 seasons as a minor league manager in the Rays system and also worked with the Puerto Rican team at the 2009 World Baseball Classic.
ROYALS: Kansas City will be without 10 of the 26 players on its active roster for its four-game series in Toronto starting Thursday because of Canadian restrictions on travelers who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19.
Manager Mike Matheny hitters Andrew Benintendi, Hunter Dozier, Cam Gallagher, Kyle Isbel, MJ Melendez, Whit Merrifield and Michael A. Taylor and pitchers Dylan Coleman, Brad Keller and Brady Singer won’t make the trip.
The 10 players will be placed on the restricted list and forfeit four days of pay and major league service time in accordance with the terms of MLB’s collective bargaining agreement.
WEDNESDAY’S GAMES
METS 7, BRAVES 3: Francisco Lindor led New York’s home-run barrage with a three-run shot, Chris Bassitt threw six strong innings and New York won in Atlanta.
The Mets won two of three in the series and lead the second-place Braves by 2 1/2 games in the NL East.
Eduardo Escobar and Mark Canha also homered for the Mets.
Eddie Rosario had three hits, including one of Atlanta’s three homers – all solo shots.
MARINERS SWEEP NATIONALS: Jesse Winker hit his second solo homer of the day and Seattle extended its winning streak to 10 by completing a doubleheader sweep in Washington with a 2-1 victory.
Seattle won the opener, 6-4, getting a three-run homer from Eugenio Suarez and six solid innings from Chris Flexen, who won his fourth straight start.
TWINS 4, BREWERS 1: Jose Miranda hit a game-ending, three-run homer against Milwaukee’s Josh Hader as the Minnesota finally got a timely hit to beat the Brewers in Minneapolis.
Miranda’s third hit of the game traveled to the second deck in left field. Hader (0-3) walked Jorge Polanco and allowed a single to Max Kepler before Miranda’s drive.
Twins reliever Jhoan Duran (1-3) earned the first win of his career
Jace Peterson homered for the Brewers’ lone run.
ROYALS 5, TIGERS 2: Brady Singer won for the first time in over a month as Kansas City beat Detroit Tigers to secure its first winning homestand in nearly a year.
Singer (3-3), who last won June 8 against Toronto, repeatedly escaped trouble to go six innings, allowing one run on seven hits and five walks.
GIANTS 4, DIAMONDBACKS 3: Brandon Crawford hit a game-ending RBI single, and San Francisco rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to beat visiting Arizona.
Wilmer Flores tied the game in the eighth with a pinch-hit homer. Brandon Belt started the rally with a solo homer in the seventh as the Giants took two of three from the D-backs and won their first series since June 17-19 at Pittsburgh.
BLUE JAYS 8, PHILLIES 2: Teoscar Hernandez hit a pair of two-run home runs, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also connected and Toronto won at home in its first game after firing manager Charlie Montoyo.
Hernandez homered off Zack Wheeler in the fourth and went deep off Bubby Rossman in the eighth for his 13th career multihomer game. The homers were his 10th and 11th of the season.
WHITE SOX 2, GUARDIANS 1: Lucas Giolito pitched one-run ball into the seventh inning and Chicago won at Cleveland.
Giolito (6-5) yielded an unearned run in 6 1/3 innings and extended his dominance of Cleveland hitters. The right-hander is 5-1 with a 0.83 ERA in 10 starts against Cleveland since May 17, 2019.
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