Indians fire Manny Acta

CLEVELAND, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- Manny Acta was fired Thursday as manager of the Cleveland Indians, who will turn to Sandy Alomar Jr. as interim manager, the team said.

The Indians are 65-91 this season and tied with Minnesota for last in the American League Central.

"The Cleveland Indians would like to thank Manny Acta for everything he has done for the organization in his three seasons as our manager," Indians General Manager Chris Antonetti said. "Manny's passion for the game, positive attitude and tremendous knowledge of baseball helped guide us to a number of high points during his tenure.

"Managerial changes are never easy or taken lightly, but as we approached the end of the season and turned our attention to assessing the year, we determined a change was necessary."

Alomar, who has been mentioned as a managerial candidate for several teams in recent years, was to guide the Indians over the final six games of the season.

Acta joined Cleveland after the 2009 season and had a 214-266 record over three seasons. He previously managed the Washington Nationals, going 158-252 before leaving the team 113 games into the 2009 season.