Blue Jays dismiss manager Montoyo
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.
General manager Ross Atkins made the move even with the Blue Jays at 46-42 entering Wednesday. They held the AL’s final wild-card slot when the day began but were in fourth place in the AL East.
Class AAA manager Casey Candaele was named interim bench coach.
“I truly wanted this to work with Charlie and wasn’t able to make that happen,” Atkins said before host Toronto beat Philadelphia 8-2 on the strength of a pair of two-run homers from Teoscar Hernandez.
Montoyo became the third manager to lose his job this season. The Los Angeles Angels replaced Joe Maddon with Phil Nevin on June 7, four days after Philadelphia fired Joe Girardi in favor of Rob Thomson, who managed against Schneider on Wednesday.
The 13th manager in Blue Jays history, Montoyo went 236-236 in parts of four seasons.
Wednesday’s games: Jesse Winker hit his second solo homer of the day, and Seattle won its 10th straight game, edging host Washington 2-1 to sweep a doubleheader. The Mariners won the opener 6-4. … Anthony Santander hit a two-run double, and Baltimore extended its winning streak to 10 games with a 7-1 victory over the host Chicago Cubs. … Shane McClanahan earned his 10th win, pitching Tampa Bay past visiting Boston 4-1. … Brady Singer won for the first time in over a month as host Kansas City beat Detroit 5-2. … Brandon Crawford hit a game-ending RBI single, and San Francisco beat visiting Arizona 4-3. … Francisco Lindor hit a three-run shot, and the New York Mets won at Atlanta 7-3. … Jose Miranda hit a game-ending, three-run homer as host Minnesota beat Milwaukee 4-1. … Jon Gray threw seven shutout innings, and Texas beat visiting Oakland 5-2. … Lucas Giolito pitched one-run ball into the seventh, and the Chicago White Sox beat host Cleveland 2-1. … Jesus Aguilar hit a tying single and scored the winning run on a wild pitch as host Miami rallied for three runs in the 10th to beat Pittsburgh 5-4. … DJ LeMahieu slid across the plate on Alexis Diaz’s second straight wild pitch in the 10th, and the host New York Yankees beat Cincinnati 7-6. Yankees pitcher Luis Severino left after two innings with right shoulder tightness. … Hanser Alberto hit a tiebreaking single in the ninth, and the Los Angeles Dodgers won 7-6 at St. Louis. … Jose Iglesias drove in a career-high six runs with a homer and two singles, and Colorado beat visiting San Diego 10-6.