Leyland suspended

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland has been suspended for three games.

Major League Baseball announced the suspension Thursday, citing “inappropriate conduct” by Leyland during Monday and Tuesday road games against the Texas Rangers.

Leyland was ejected in the sixth inning of Monday’s game for disputing a hit-by-pitch decision that went in Texas’ favor. He shouted at the umpires as they left the field Tuesday after a 5-4 loss to the Rangers.

Leyland’s suspension will begin today when the Tigers play the Indians in Cleveland.

Indians tap Columbus

The Cleveland Indians have signed a four-year player development contract with the Columbus Clippers.

The Clippers, the New York Yankees’ Triple-A team from 1979-2006 and Washington’s the past two years, are opening a $55 million downtown ballpark next season. Huntington Park is located in the city’s Arena District, just down the street from where the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets play.

Cleveland recently broke ties with the Buffalo Bisons.

American League highlights

Twins 11, Rays 8: At St. Petersburg, Fla., Evan Longoria hit three home runs for Tampa Bay but Alexi Casilla homered in Minnesota’s five-run ninth inning, helping the Twins rally for a victory over the Rays. Minnesota ended a four-game skid and pulled within 1 1/2 games of Central-leading Chicago.

Tampa Bay’s East lead over idle Boston was trimmed to 1 1/2 games.

Yankees 9, White Sox 2: At New York, Bobby Abreu homered twice and drove in six runs, Mike Mussina kept up his hopes for a 20-win season and the Yankees beat Central-leading Chicago.

Angels 6, Athletics 4: At Oakland, Calif., Kendry Morales, Mike Napoli and Brandon Wood hit solo home runs in order during a span of four pitches from Keith Foulke in the seventh inning and West champion Los Angeles withstood a late rally by the Athletics to avoid a three-game sweep.

National League highlights

Mets 7, Nationals 2: At Washington, Johan Santana took a shutout into the seventh inning, got plenty of support including Brian Schneider’s first multihomer game in 5 1/2 years, and New York beat the Nationals. The Mets stretched their lead for the wild card to 1 1/2 games, because the Brewers lost to the Cubs 7-6 in 12 innings.

Phillies 4, Braves 3: At Atlanta, Pat Burrell hit a tiebreaking two-run homer in the sixth inning and Philadelphia beat the Braves to complete an unprecedented sweep of the nine-game season series in Atlanta. The Phillies remained a half-game ahead of the Mets in the East with their season-best seventh straight win. Philadelphia is the first team to sweep a season series longer than four games in Atlanta. It swept three three-game series at Turner Field by a combined score of 49-24.

Cubs 7, Brewers 6 (12): At Chicago, Geovany Soto hit a tying three-run homer with two out in the ninth inning, Derrek Lee singled in the winning run in the 12th and the Cubs beat Milwaukee to move closer to the Central title.

Dodgers 4, Pirates 3 (12): At Pittsburgh, James Loney’s line-drive single scored the go-ahead run in the 12th inning as Los Angeles inched closer to winning the West by holding off the Pirates.