Jul 13, 2022 5 min read

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 this season. They held the AL’s final wild-card slot when the day began but were in fourth place in the AL East.

Triple-A manager Casey Candaele was named interim bench coach.

“I truly wanted this to work with Charlie and wasn’t able to make that happen,” general manager Ross Atkins said before the Blue Jays hosted Philadelphia. “I’m extremely disappointed in where we are. I think we’re better than how we’ve played.”

Toronto beat the Phillies 4-3 on Tuesday to snap a four-game losing streak.

“Us as players know things could be better, things have to be better,” Blue Jays outfielder George Springer said. “We understand what we all can do. It hasn’t really shown yet. I think that’s the frustrating part.”

Atkins said the decision to fire Montoyo was made in the past 24 hours.

“It got to the point where it felt as though there were a lot of good individual things happening and we need to be playing better as a team,” Atkins said

The Blue Jays are 3-9 in July. They went 1-6 on a road trip against Oakland, which has the worst record in the majors, and Seattle that ended Sunday with a four-game sweep against the Mariners.

“I think we’re just not playing to our potential,” Atkins said. “I see some small opportunities to help that, and this was one of them.”

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 Wednesday.

Kansas City 5, Detroit 2: Brady Singer won for the first time in over a month as the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 5-2 to earn their 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.

Royals shorthanded: The Kansas City Royals will be without 10 of the 26 players on their active roster for their upcoming trip to Toronto due to Canadian restrictions on travelers who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19.

Manager Mike Matheny said Wednesday the club will be without hitters Andrew Benintendi, Hunter Dozier, Cam Gallagher, Kyle Isbel, MJ Melendez, Whit Merrifield and Michael A. Taylor along with pitchers Dylan Coleman, Brad Keller and Brady Singer.

The team is set to play four games in Toronto. 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.

National League

N.Y. Mets 7, Atlanta 3: The New York Mets won two of three in their NL East showdown with the Atlanta Braves despite playing without two of their four All-Stars.

It helped that Francisco Lindor played like he should be included at the Midsummer Classic.

Lindor led New York’s power game with a three-run homer, Chris Bassitt threw six strong innings and the Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-3.

The first-place Mets stretched their lead over the Braves to 2 1/2 games.

Lindor had five hits in the set. He has 64 RBIs and already has topped his 2021 total of 63.

San Francisco 4, Arizona 3: Brandon Crawford hit a game-ending RBI single, and the San Francisco Giants rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks, 4-3.

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.

Interleague

Minnesota 4, Milwaukee 1: Jose Miranda hit a game-ending, three-run homer against Milwaukee’s Josh Hader as the Minnesota Twins finally got a timely hit to beat the Brewers, 4-1.

Miranda’s third hit of the game traveled to the second deck in left field. The Twins have five walk-off wins this season.

Hader (0-3) walked Jorge Polanco and allowed a single to Max Kepler before Miranda’s drive.

Jhoan Duran (1-3) worked the ninth for the first win of his career, allowing one hit and a walk. Milwaukee had runners on first and second against Duran, but Jace Peterson – who homered earlier – grounded into a 3-6-3 double play.

Seattle 6-2, Washington 4-1: Jesse Winker hit his second solo homer of the day and the Seattle Mariners won their 10th straight game, edging the Washington Nationals 2-1 to sweep a doubleheader.

The Mariners have 10 consecutive wins for the first time since April 8-17, 2002. Their only longer winning streak was a 15-game run from May 23-June 8, 2001 – the last year they made the playoffs. Seattle is second in the AL West, well behind Houston but squarely in wild-card contention.

The Mariners won the opener 6-4, getting a three-run homer from Eugenio Suárez and six solid innings from Chris Flexen, who won his fourth straight start.