Sports briefs 8/6/05

Baseball

• Detroit Tigers catcher Ivan Rodriguez was suspended for four games Friday for arguing with the plate umpire during a game against Oakland last week.

Rodriguez also was fined an undisclosed sum. His suspension was scheduled to begin Friday night, unless he appeals.

Also, New York Mets bench coach Sandy Alomar Sr. was suspended one game and fined an undisclosed sum for arguing with third base umpire Rob Drake during Sunday's 9-4 victory over Houston.

Rodriguez was ejected in the fourth inning of the Tigers' 9-5 loss on July 30 for arguing balls and strikes. He then went chest to chest with umpire Ted Barrett, touching him on the shoulder with his mask.

Manager Alan Trammell tried to break up the argument, and Rodriguez threw his mask before leaving the game. When he returned to the dugout, Rodriguez tossed a bag of balls and his shin guards onto the field.

"It was a pretty serious offense because he was throwing stuff out of the dugout," Barrett said after the game.

Tennis

* Top-seeded Andy Roddick rallied from a first-set loss to beat Croatia's Ivo Karlovic 6-7 (7), 7-5, 6-4 Friday and advance to the semifinals of the Legg Mason Classic.

Karlovic was two points away from winning the match in the second set, but Roddick rallied to tie the match and grinded out a win in the third set against his unseeded opponent.

Roddick will face 13th-seeded Paradorn Srichaphan in the semifinals on today. Srichaphan defeated Luis Horna 6-4, 7-5.

* Mary Pierce defeated Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-3 Friday to advance to the semifinals of the Acura Classic.

Pierce will face the winner of the late quarterfinal match between seventh-seeded Kim Clijsters and unseeded Shuai Peng.

The other semifinal match will include two Japanese players, Ai Sugiyama and Akiko Morigami. The winner will become the first unseeded player to reach the Acura final since Pierce lost to Lindsay Davenport in 1998.

Sugiyama advanced with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over 15-year-old Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria. Morigami moved into the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Anna Chakvetadze of Russia.

-- From wire reports