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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Trouble always rolls downhill. Thursday it rolled over Manny Acta.

At 1 p.m., after being summoned to Progressive Field, Acta was fired as manager by General Manager Chris Antonetti. Afterward, Antonetti called bench coach Sandy Alomar Jr. and made him acting manager for the final six games of the season.

While Acta paid the price, Antonetti and President Mark Shapiro will be back next year. Given the scope of the Indians' second-half collapse, all three of their jobs seemed in danger.

Alomar, a six-time All-Star who caught the third-most games in Indians' history, is a strong candidate to get the full-time job. Former Boston and Philadelphia manager Terry Francona, who used to work in the Indians' baseball operations department, is a candidate as well.

Acta's coaching staff will stay until the end of the season. Mike Sarbaugh, Class AAA manager at Columbus, will take Alomar's job as bench coach.

The Indians may have to wait until after the postseason to name the new manager. MLB frowns on teams taking away from the postseason by making big announcements.

This is a franchise in need of a large injection of player talent, but for an immediate organizational impact, nothing matches firing the manager. It gets people's attention.

"Today is an exceptionally difficult day for the organization and me personally," said Antonetti. "Manny is a tremendous person with great baseball experience. Every day that Manny was here, he worked tirelessly to make the organization better.

"Unfortunately, our results on the field fell short of our expectations. We're disappointed that we were not able to win more consistently under Manny's leadership. We believe a new approach at this point will give us the best chance moving forward."

The decision to fire Acta was made Wednesday night in a meeting with Antonetti, Shapiro and CEO Paul Dolan.

The Indians, who spent 40 days atop the AL Central before the All-Star break, are 21-50 since the break. The collapse started with an 11-game losing streak on July 27 and never really stopped. The Indians' longest winning streak since the break has been two games. They've done it four times.

In August the Indians went 5-24. It was the worst month in franchise history. The Indians have been around since 1901.

They have improved to 10-14 in September, but the losing broke the team.

"These last two months have felt like six months," said Acta.

This is Antonetti's second season as general manager after serving as Shapiro's assistant for nine years. He was primarily responsible for hiring Acta after Eric Wedge was fired late in the 2009 season.

He was also the driving force behind assembling the 2012 roster. In responding to a question about why he still had a job, Antonetti said: "It's probably a better question for someone else, but what I can tell you is I'm accountable for those decisions. Certainly many of the decisions we made haven't worked out as well as we hoped.

"At the same time, I continue to believe in the talent we have on this roster. I'm hopeful that the group of guys we have here will do better."

Antonetti said he may have over-estimated the talent on the team when it broke camp in spring training, but he was quick to add, "We contended for four months with that roster."

The last time the Indians were in first place was June 23. They were still 31/2 games out after beating Detroit and Justin Verlander on July 26. Then they fell down an elevator shaft and Acta could not apply the air brakes.

"It was a very tough time," said Acta.

Antonetti believes the Indians have a solid core of players in Carlos Santana, Jason Kipnis, Asdrubal Cabrera, Michael Brantley, Shin-Soo Choo, Zach McAllister, Corey Kluber, Justin Masterson and a bullpen full of good arms led by Chris Perez.

"What we need to do is add to that core," he said.

First, comes a new manager. Alomar has never managed at any level, but neither did Chicago's Robin Ventura or St. Louis' Mike Matheny before this year. The White Sox and Cardinals are still in the playoff hunt.

Antonetti said the search for a new manager would start today. He didn't get into specifics out of respect for Acta. Alomar, for the same reason, said he'd talk to reporters today.

Last year Acta earned praise from the front office for guiding the Indians to an 80-82 finish despite a series of injuries in the second half. This year some in the front office felt the Indians were more talented than they showed in the second half. They figured something had to be wrong.

Acta is a good in-game manager and popular with the media. He was not always close and fuzzy with his players. He told reporters recently, only half-kiddingly, "it's lonely at the top."

Antonetti said Acta was fired on Thursday because the team has several upcoming meetings regarding players and coaches before the end of the season. He did not feel it was fair to Acta to sit in on those meetings when he knew his fate was sealed.

"Those meetings will be forward looking," said Antonetti. "We thought it best, out of respect for Manny, to allow him to move on."