Martinez Hit With 5-Game Suspension

Pitcher Pedro Martinez of the Boston Red Sox was suspended for five games Wednesday for hitting Roberto Alomar with a pitch after being warned not to retaliate for a hit batsman.

Martinez, the 1999 American League Cy Young winner, immediately appealed the ruling from Frank Robinson, baseball’s vice president of on-field operations.

Martinez, who is 5-0 and leads the AL in victories, earned-run average and strikeouts, will be able to pitch until his appeal is heard. His next start is scheduled for Saturday against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“I’m hopeful that the suspension will be reduced on appeal,” Boston General Manager Dan Duquette said before Wednesday’s game. “Pedro takes a lot of pride in making his starts when asked. He also takes pride in being a leader on the ballclub.”

Martinez, who was also fined an undisclosed amount, didn’t comment on the ruling, but said earlier in the week that he did not expect to be punished for his role in two bench-clearing confrontations last Sunday at Cleveland.

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Cleveland Indian Manager Charlie Manuel will have surgery Friday to reattach his colon and is expected to be away from the team for at least two weeks.

Manuel, who had eight inches of his colon removed during emergency surgery when it ruptured during spring training, will have tests at the Cleveland Clinic today before undergoing the operation.

While Manuel is gone, coach Grady Little will serve as the Indians’ interim manager.

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A lawsuit accusing a former San Francisco Giant scout of demanding sexual favors from foreign players in return for a chance to play for the team will proceed in the United States and not the Dominican Republic, a federal appeals court ruled.

The decision to keep the case in the U.S. reverses an August 1998 decision by a federal district court, which dismissed the case on grounds that the Dominican Republic would be a better forum.

Thirteen Dominican players accuse former Giant scout Luis Rosa, 54, of demanding sexual favors from them, and then cutting them from a Giant farm team when they refused to comply.

Rosa has denied the accusations.

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Juan Encarnacion and Robert Fick of the Detroit Tigers will appeal fines and suspensions levied against them by major league baseball following last month’s brawls with the Chicago White Sox.