CLEVELAND — Manny Acta likes the progress made by the Cleveland Indians despite injuries and their last-place standing in the AL Central.

Acta

“There’s a lot of baseball left and I like how our group of kids played the last couple of weeks of the first half,” Acta said Thursday during an off­day practice.

“The wins are not there, but I’ve seen improvement.”

The Indians, 34-54, open the season’s second half tonight against division rival Detroit. They will do it with the top three players missing from their lineup. Outfielder Grady Sizemore is out for the season following knee surgery in May. Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and possibly outfielder Shin-Soo Choo could be back soon.

Cabrera is on a minor league rehab assignment, recovering from a broken left forearm suf­fered in mid-May. Choo, out since July 2 with an injured right thumb, took part in field­ing drills and did some light hitting Thursday.

Choo believes he can avoid surgery that would sideline him until at least September. He was examined Monday by Dr. Thomas Graham, who offered some words of encouragement.

“The MRI was not that good, but the doctor tested the thumb and thinks it may not be that bad,” said Choo, who has 13 homers, 43 RBIs and a .286 average. “He told me to try rehab and if I do not feel better, then surgery is still possible.

“But I feel better every day.”

Choo took 20 swings off a batting tee Wednesday, progressed to hitting some soft toss and is scheduled to take regular batting practice by Saturday.

Acta, pleased at that prospect, believes his first year in Cleveland can still be successful.

“A month ago we left Chicago and things were not going their way,” he said of the White Sox. “Now, they are in first place. Anything can happen.”

Acta also knows more youngsters may soon be replacing highpriced veterans that get traded away.

Shortstop Jhonny Peralta, outfielder Austin Kearns and righthanders Kerry Wood and Jake Westbrook may be offered to contenders in exchange for prospects that would help the rebuilding Indians in the future.

Westbrook, back after missing nearly two seasons because of elbow surgery, is trying to ignore trade talks.

“Trades are going to happen, but that’s completely out of my control, so why think about it?” said the 32-year-old. “I need to focus on what I can do. That’s pitch as well as I can for this team.”

The Indians already have one of the youngest rosters in the majors and Acta enjoys what he has seen. “The kids we called up when we got the injuries handled the adversity well,” Acta said. “My long-term goal is to see each of them get better.

“We all have to be patient, though. It’s easy to say, ‘Bring up the kids,’ but then when they get here and you see they still need work on fundamentals, you have to go through that, too.”

With a doubleheader Saturday against Detroit, the Indians will need to call up a starting pitcher early next week for a spot start. Right-hander Carlos Carrasco likely will be called up from Triple-A Columbus.

“One start, that’s all,” Acta said. “Unless the guy pitches a perfect game. Then we would have to change our minds.”

The organization will use the second half to evaluate a number of players.

“We’ve seen Matt LaPorta, Jason Donald and Trevor Crowe go out and perform for us,” Acta said. “We’re going to take a look at some more.”

ELYRIA — A man was likely destined for the “stupid criminals” list when he stole from a man he knew in broad daylight. He may get off scott free, though, because the victim didn’t cooperate with police, and the case is considered closed, according to a police report.

Police were called to A-1 Rebuildable Auto Salvage Yard on Infirmary Road about 1:40 yesterday afternoon. The business owner, Steve Hohman, told officers a man he knows by his first name because he helps around the scrap yard had come in about noon and asked about a rear strut arm for a Honda Accord.

Hohman told him the part was $35, and the man told him he didn’t have any money and left.

About 1 p.m., a white compact car with a black hood and fenders pulled up, and the same man got out. A witness watched him jump the fence. After a few minutes he jumped the fence back out of the scrap yard with the part in his hand and road off, the report said.

Hohman and the witness directed officers to a Melvyn Lane home where the car was parked next to a green Honda Accord that was jacked up in the driveway.

The first man and a second man working on the car who also said he works for Hohman at the scrap yard insisted they had paid for the part.

Officers told the man to return the part, and they objected, saying “It’s already installed on the car,” the report said.

The second man offered to pay for the part, but Hohman told him he wanted the part back.

The first man disappeared after going to retrieve the part, so police asked Hohman to come to the station after work to sign charges. According to the report, he did not, so the case is closed due to lack of cooperation from the victim.

SHEFFIELD LAKE — Sheffield Lake police are hoping security camera photos from the Wal-Mart at Chestnut Commons in Elyria can help them identify individuals who stole a purse from a car at a city park.

According to Capt. Tony Campo, the purse was taken Monday from a car at Lakewood Beach park.

A man and a woman used credit cards taken in the theft to purchase $209 worth of merchandise that night at Wal-Mart, he said. Among the items purchased were beverages, a booster seat, diapers and clothing and undergarments.

Security cameras caught the man, woman and two children — an infant in a carrier and a toddler — at the register and exiting the store.

Anyone with information on the couple’s identity is asked to call Sheffield Lake police at 949-7131.

LUCASVILLE — An Ohio man said he was “heartily sorry” before he was executed this morning for the murders of five children in a 1992 Cincinnati apartment fire he set in an attempt to destroy evidence of a burglary.

Garner

William Garner, 37, died by lethal injection at 10:38 a.m. at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility.

As he lay on the execution table, Garner held a dreadlock of hair from a female friend and read a lengthy final statement from notebook paper held by the execution team leader, thanking several people as well as the state of Ohio.

“God bless everyone who has been robbed in this procedure,” he said. “I thought I’d never be free, but I’m free now.”

In the pre-dawn hours of Jan. 26, 1992, Garner gained access to Addie Mack’s apartment after stealing keys from her purse while she received care in a hospital emergency room. Six children, ages 8 to 13, were at the apartment alone, and Garner knew they were there when he threw a lit match onto a couch.

Garner has admitted setting the fire but said he thought the children would escape. Only one, 13-year-old Rod Mack, made it out alive. Mack watched the execution quietly with several others.

So many people wanted to witness the execution on behalf of the young victims that the prison opened a second viewing room, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said. Mack and five others were accommodated in the witness room facing the execution chamber, and another three watched on closed-circuit TV in the spillover room, she said.

Garner spent his final hours watching television and talking on the telephone with a friend and his twin brother. He visited with his mother and other relatives, as well as with spiritual advisers and his legal team, and took Holy Communion about an hour and a half before the start of his execution.

Garner had said a secondary motivation for setting the fire was to draw attention to the children’s squalid living conditions. He told police that he had noticed the bedroom “full of girls” and that one of them had asked him for water, which he provided, according to a report by the Ohio Parole Board. He also said he had been in another bedroom where the two boys slept.

His lawyers had argued that the death sentences be set aside because Garner had developmental disabilities, a limited IQ and a violent, abusive upbringing that caused him to function on the level of a 14-year-old at the time of the deaths.

Garner is the sixth person executed in Ohio this year and the 39th put to death by the state since it resumed the practice in 1999.