After dropping this weekend’s series in New York, the Blue Jays will have a day off on Monday before they return home to host the Orioles.
Shi Davidi of Sportsnet reported before the game that Chris Bassitt will start in the series opener on Tuesday, followed by Bowden Francis on Wednesday, and Kevin Gausman going up against his former club on Thursday. Francis came into Sunday’s game against the Yankees in the 10th inning but should still be ready to make his start against the Orioles on Wednesday, according to John Schneider.
In other Blue Jays-related news from the weekend…
Joey Votto hits home run in first start with Triple-A Buffalo
Future Hall of Famer Joey Votto made his first start with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons on Sunday and he launched his first home run with the team over the right field wall.
we never thought we’d be tweeting this…
A Joey Votto HOME RUN with @PatWGR on the call 🗣️#Bisons | @BlueJays pic.twitter.com/UKIjRD240C
— Buffalo Bisons (@BuffaloBisons) August 4, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The 40-year-old went 1-for-4 with a walk and two strikeouts in what wound up being a 10-1 win for the Bisons. Votto’s first two appearances with Buffalo came earlier this weekend in pinch-hitting appearances. He hit a single in his first and drew a walk in his second.
Whether Votto will get into a game with his hometown Blue Jays remains to be seen. He inked a minor-league contract with Toronto and was a legitimate option for a job on the Opening Day roster before suffering an ankle injury by stepping on a bat in the dugout during a Grapefruit League game.
After missing all of April and May, Votto joined the Low-A Dunedin Blue Jays in late June. He went 8-for-37 with one home run over 12 games with the team and was moved up to Triple-A Buffalo at the beginning of August.
Charlie Montoyo could be back in a managerial role soon
It’s been a long time since the Chicago White Sox won a game. The team is currently mired in a 20-game losing streak that dates all the way back to July 10 and they now own a 27-86 record on the season.
According to Travis Hudson, an independent reporter out of New York who was the first on the news that Erick Fedde was being traded from the White Sox to the St. Louis Cardinals last week, Chicago is going to make a managerial change in the coming days. Hudson said that the White Sox are going to fire Pedro Grifol and that Charlie Montoyo will take over as the team’s manager.
Source: White Sox plan to fire Pedro Grifol in coming days, possibly tomorrow.
Bench coach Charlie Montoyo is set to be the interim manager for the remainder of the 2024 season.
— Travis Hudson (@TravisFHudson) August 3, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The White Sox hired Grifol ahead of the 2023 season after the second Tony La Russa era came to a disastrous end. Chicago went 61-101 in Grifol’s first season and the team is now 88-188 with him as their manager.
If Grifol is fired and Montoyo takes over, the former Blue Jays manager will see himself in an opposite spot from the one he was in a couple of years ago. The Blue Jays fired Montoyo in 2022 after the team got off to a disappointing 46-42 start and John Schneider moved from bench coach to manager to replace him. The native of Florida, Puerto Rico managed Toronto from 2019 to 2022 and the team posted a 236-236 record during his tenure.