Manager Charlie Montoyo was no longer the man for the job at the Toronto Blue Jays, he who was fired on Wednesday.

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The news, announced in the early afternoon, came as a surprise as sports fans in Toronto were instead waiting for news from the Maple Leafs as part of the opening of the free agent market in the National Hockey League.

Either way, it will now be Montoyo's turn to look for work elsewhere. He was fired a few hours before their scheduled evening home game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The organization announced that bench coach John Schneider will assume the duties on an interim basis for the remainder of the season. Casey Candaele, who was manager at the AAA level with the Buffalo Bisons, will take the seat from Schneider.

Like Candaele, Montoyo is a former player who played for the Expos, having played in four games with the Montreal club in 1993.

Before hitting the field Wednesday night, the Jays were ranked fourth in the American League East Division with a 46-42 record.

A recent harrowing trip

A 4-3 victory over the Phillies on Tuesday night did not allow Montoyo to save his job. His troop had a harrowing trip to the American West before reuniting with their supporters, including suffering a four-game sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners last weekend.

Montoyo had been in charge since 2019. He presented a record equivalent to the threshold of respectability, which is 236-236. A difficult first season, with a record of 67-95, mainly explains the situation.

The 56-year-old Puerto Rican used the shortened 2020 season to guide the Jays to the playoffs, losing to the Tampa Bay Rays in a 2-of-3 series. is dramatically content with fourth place in its division. The team had then spent the season traveling between different homes, namely Dunedin, Buffalo and Toronto due to the pandemic.

A positive response

The Blue Jays players do not seem to have taken the news of the dismissal of their manager too hard, they who signed a convincing victory of 8 to 2 against the Phillies, at Rogers Place.

They thus sweep this short series of two games, they who will now turn their attention to the Kansas City Royals, the next to cross north of the Canada-US border. They will be in the Queen City from Thursday to Sunday, for a series of four duels.

To return to the duel of the day, Teoscar Hernandez was particularly happy at bat by hitting two homers, respectively in the fourth and eighth innings. At each opportunity, Alejandro Kirk completed his lap of the trails.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. also hit a long ball, his 20th of the season, in the fourth inning.

On the mound, Jays starting gunner Ross Stripling was particularly effective, giving up both runs, each unearned, on two hits. He also passed six opponents in the mitt, in seven innings of work.