Baseball Notebook: Marlins manager resigns

Through it all, Edwin Rodriguez kept his sense of humor. The Florida Marlins’ manager talked about ghost stories and the team’s hotel. He joked about moving the calendar ahead to July in hopes of escaping an awful June.

As it turns out, that long, 10-game losing streak hurt more than he showed.

Rodriguez, the first Puerto Rican-born manager in major league history, unexpectedly resigned Sunday after less than one year on the job.

Bench coach Brandon Hyde managed the last-place Marlins as they lost 2-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays. But the club will begin a search for an interim manager and potential candidates include 80-year-old Jack McKeon, the special assistant to the owner who led Florida to a World Series title in 2003.

Rodriguez said it was difficult to leave, given the “positive way the organization is moving, a new ballpark next season and the young core of players.”

“I can’t say enough about the effort that this staff and these players have put into this season,” he said in a statement released by the team. “I could tell that they continued to give 100 percent effort each and every day on the field. I wish this organization and players nothing but success in their futures.”

Rodriguez became interim manager June 23 of last year after Fredi Gonzalez was fired. He was given the job permanently five days later.

Florida went 46-46 last season under Rodriguez, who opened the 2010 season as the Marlins’ Triple-A manager in New Orleans.

The Marlins fell to 1-18 in June with Sunday’s loss to the Rays. Ace pitcher Josh Johnson is injured and star shortstop Hanley Ramirez has struggled through a miserable slump all season.

Indians change hitting coaches during skid

The Cleveland Indians have changed hitting coaches, replacing Jon Nunnally with Bruce Fields.

The Indians recently went through an offensive slump in which they were shut out six times in 18 games from May 27 to June 14. Cleveland went 5-13 during that span.

Fields is in his sixth year in the organization, serving as the minor-league hitting instructor since 2007. He was Detroit’s hitting coach from 2003-05.

Clearing the bases

The Boston Red Sox have placed right-hander Clay Buchholz on the 15-day disabled list and called up left-hander Andrew Miller from Triple-A Pawtucket. … Toronto Blue Jays shortstop Yunel Escobar has agreed to a two-year, $10 million contract extension that includes club options for the 2014 and 2015 seasons.