THE WEEK

NL EAST

New York sent Ed Kranepool down to Tidewater, after all these years, and popped into first place by snatching five straight from the Cubs. PITTSBURGH played its last game in Forbes Field, after all these years, and also moved over .500 and into second. Roberto Clemente saved a 3-2 win with a leaping catch against the wall, tipping the ball with his glove and then grabbing it on the way down. CHICAGO lost 10 straight and 11 of 12, and chafed under such insults as being called "tight-collar workers" in the press, ST. LOUIS finally got a dividend on the $50,000 bonus they paid Jim Beauchamp 12 years ago. Two shoulder separations and many travels later, Beauchamp won a game for the Cards with a home run caught by a fan leaning out over the field. The victim, of course, was PHILADELPHIA, whose trainer summed up another aspect of the team's fortunes: "I'll have one or two fellows on tables, and maybe one or two on the diathermy machine and another in the whirlpool. I'll put a bandage on another guy and say, 'Hey, stand here a minute,' and then maybe move one guy from the machine to the water.... " And Joe Hoerner suffered a heart spasm while pitching. MONTREAL Manager Gene Mauch said his pitchers needed a leader. "We can teach them so much, but they've got to have one of their own show them the way on the mound."

NY 38-33 PITT 40-35 CHI 35-35 ST. L 35-37 PHIL 32-39 MONT 28-44

NL WEST

Cincinnati's Crosley Field—where the first major league night game was played in 1935 (F.D.R. turning on the lights from the White House), where a girl named Kitty Burke once grabbed a bat from Babe Herman and swung at a pitch from Paul (Daffy) Dean (giving her grounds to be billed in vaudeville later as "the only girl who batted in the big leagues") and where Andy Seminick once caught a pop foul while sliding on his back down the dugout steps—has been retired. In their last home game before moving to Riverfront Stadium, the Reds beat Juan Marichal 5-4 with back-to-back home runs in the eighth by Johnny Bench and Lee May. Bill Singer of LOS ANGELES continued to improve in his comeback from hepatitis, pitching 7‚Öî innings of one-hit ball against the Braves. After that performance and a shutout by Joe Moeller, ATLANTA Manager Luman Harris observed, "The Dodgers didn't have an ace on their pitching staff when they got to town. Now they have two." The Braves, on the other hand, after acquiring Aubrey Gatewood, 31, from Shreveport, now lead the league in knuckleballers with three: Phil Niekro, Hoyt Wilhelm and Gatewood, who was once told by Casey Stengel, then of the Yankees, "Son, we'd like to keep you around this season, but we're going to try to win a pennant." Henry Aaron, formerly one of Gaylord Perry's leading accusers, said he didn't think the SAN FRANCISCO pitcher was throwing the spitter anymore. With or without it, Perry three-hit the Braves to become the first 12-game winner in the majors. When HOUSTON'S Joe Pepitone had to stay in New York to iron out some alimony problems, young Bob Watson took over at first base and raised another problem for Pepitone: Watson's average went from .189 to over .300. SAN DIEGO'S Clarence Gaston, .338, 49 RBIs, wondered why he hasn't been walked intentionally all year: "I know I'm for real, but the pitchers don't seem to believe it."

CINN 52-21 LA 43-30 ATL 36-35 SF 36-37 HOUS 31-43 SD 30-47

AL EAST

In the 13th inning last Thursday, Frank Robinson of BALTIMORE crashed into the fence, catching a near homer and hurting his back. Unable to swing the bat in the 14th, he squeeze-bunted the go-ahead run in with the bases loaded. On Friday, slightly looser, he hit two grand-slam home runs in two innings. In one doubleheader day NEW YORK featured four straight home runs by Bobby Murcer, a fight between Stan Bahnsen and the Indians' Vada Pinson, a spectator arrested for exploding a firecracker under crouching Ray Fosse and a duel between Tony Horton and Steve Hamilton's high, soft one, the "folly floater." Horton fouled one floater off, called for another one, got it, popped it up and crawled down the dugout steps on his knees. "Does anybody hit that Timmerman?" cried Ted Williams. He was referring to DETROIT'S suddenly emergent reliever Tom Timmerman, who says, "I never try to think deep. The big thing is keeping the ball down. When I get it up, I hope to get by somehow." "Ray Culp's the type of guy you love to play behind," said Rico Petrocelli of BOSTON. "He works quickly, he's professional and you're always ready. We play better behind him. He makes us look good." He was 6 and 8. CLEVELAND had a starting rotation of Sam McDowell, Rich Hand, Steve Dunning and Rick Austin, although only McDowell had big-league experience before this year. Of Dunning, Ralph Houk said, "I'd like to own him." And in his second lifetime appearance Austin shut out the Tigers. "Nobody wins 12-2 anymore," said WASHINGTON'S Williams. "Almost all games are close." The next night Baltimore beat the Senators 12-2.

BALT 46-27 NY 43-29 DET 37-33 BOST 34-35 CLEV 32-38 WASH 32-40

AL WEST

Minnesota's Rod Carew, hit as he pivoted by Brewer Mike Hegan's inadvertent rolling block ("My spikes got hooked up when I tried to slide"), got off his double-play throw but "I felt the knee pop out when he hit me, and when I hit the ground it popped back in." Carew left the game with so much fluid swelling the knee that he was expected to be out for 10 weeks, which does not leave much of 1970 for the league's leading hitter to play. CALIFORNIA Latins Sandy Alomar (21 games) and Joe Azcue (10) had hitting streaks, and Chico Ruiz said, "Just like the Mets. We go to Las Vegas and we play the lounge of some hotel. We will have our own steel band, marimba and everything. Do you believe that?" OAKLAND picked up Tommy Davis from the Astros as a $70,000-a-year pinch hitter and outfield substitute, and it was revealed that A's Catcher Frank Fernandez, formerly of New York, still wears his Yankee undershirt under his green-and-golds. "When you get as many hits as we did," said KANSAS CITY Manager Bob Lemon after the Royals stranded 10 men in losing 5-1, "you keep thinking you'll score. Maybe we would if we'd played a few more innings, but that damn Abner Doubleday made it a nine-inning game. Obviously he was never a manager." And Lemon never a historian. The gold Cadillac of CHICAGO'S Luis Aparicio was stolen from a Loop garage. MILWAUKEE attendance moved ahead of Seattle's '69 pace.

MINN 43-30 CAL 42-25 OAK 41-33 KC 26-44 CHI 27-47 MIL 25-47