THE WEEK

AL EAST

Baltimore's only victories were pitched by two imports from the National League. Pat Dobson, who came to the Orioles from San Diego, beat the Tigers, while Grant Jackson, a former Phillie, hit an eighth-inning home run to win his own game against Cleveland. DETROIT needed two days to get one win over the Orioles. The teams were tied 4-4 after 13 innings when Baltimore's curfew law forced suspension of play. "What do you have, a bunch of Puritans?" protested Tiger Manager Billy Martin. "Someone ought to tell Baltimore this is 1971." The next day Detroit scored five runs in the 15th inning to win the game 9-4. The Tigers went home and lost twice to BOSTON, which ran up seven consecutive wins before Stan Bahnsen of the Yankees became the first pitcher in 13 months to shut out the Red Sox in Fenway Park. Utilityman John Kennedy, who replaced injured Second Baseman Doug Griffin, First Baseman George Scott and Third Baseman Rico Petrocelli all helped win Red Sox games with home runs. Ted Uhlaender of CLEVELAND returned three days after he retired, but there was no word from Ken Harrelson. NEW YORK had lost six of seven before Bahnsen's Boston win. "He's a pitcher now," said Red Sox Shortstop Luis Aparicio. "All you used to have to do was wait for his fastball. You knew eventually he'd come in with it. Now he doesn't." In a tough situation, Bahnsen threw Carl Yastrzemski a changeup, and Yaz hit into a double play. Bahnsen now has won seven of his last eight starts and has not permitted more than two runs in any game since May 25. The poverty-stricken Senators were still in WASHINGTON and—surprise—even winning. They beat the Yankees twice, one time on hits by Bernie Allen and Larry Biitner with two outs in the ninth, the other on a four-hitter by Jim Shellenback, who has five wins over New York in the last two seasons.

BALT 48-30 BOST 44-33 DET 43-36 NY 37-43 CLEV 36-43 WASH 30-47

AL WEST

Although OAKLAND was Blue after Vida (page 22) lost his third game of the year and the Athletics dropped three straight for the first time since opening week, Owner Charlie Finley was temporarily awash in green. Against the Twins, Vida Blue drew some 35,000 people, just about 29,000 more than attended the Blueless, batless, hatless game the next night. MINNESOTA won that one 10-4 despite the fact that Tony Oliva and Harmon Killebrew, who had combined to drive in 104 of the 298 runs the Twins have scored all year, were sidelined by injuries. "If we can do what we did in this game without them," said Manager Bill Rigney, "we should have a ball when they get back." Killebrew returned for the next game, and the Twins were rudely shut out by Milwaukee. "I don't understand my team," Rigney sighed. After losing eight of nine games, KANSAS CITY rebounded to take three of four from the downtrodden Angels, thanks primarily to continued clutch hitting by Amos Otis, who hit his 12th and 13th home runs and got his sixth game-winning hit in a month. One of Otis' homers beat the Angels for freckle-faced Pitcher Mike Hedlund, who later credited Second Baseman Cookie Rojas for his five-hit, one-run performance. "Cookie told me that when a batter does something wrong he takes extra hitting practice," Hedlund said, "and so why shouldn't a pitcher take extra pitching practice?" Hedlund did and managed to put the slide back into his slider. CHICAGO'S Bill Melton hit a club-record 12 home runs during June and tied Oliva for the league lead. "My natural swing has a very slight uppercut," he said. "It's the kind of swing that Ted Williams likes. And if it's good enough for him, it's good enough for me." MILWAUKEE Manager Dave Bristol claimed that Umpire Jim Honochick called his team "ragamuffins" and said he had never been so insulted. Rookie Mickey Rivers of CALIFORNIA, brought up to replace Alex Johnson, ran so fast to first base on a routine grounder that he forced the infielder to make an error. "That's what hustling can do for you," Manager Lefty Phillips said pointedly.

OAK 51-27 KC 39-36 MINN 39-40 CHI 33-42 CAL 36-47 MIL 32-44

NL EAST

Two NEW YORK Pitchers shut out PITTSBURGH one day, four Pirates shut out the Mets the next and the division leaders split a two-game series at Shea Stadium. In the Mets' 4-0 victory, righthander Nolan Ryan struck out home-run leader Willie Stargell all three times he faced him. "You've got to outguess Stargell," Ryan said. "You can't give him the same pitch twice in a row." Then Danny Frisella, with a 1.47 ERA, completed the shutout. Next day, in a four-hour and 14-minute game delayed three times by rain, Dock Ellis, aided by Jim Nelson, Nelson Briles and Dave Giusti, won his 13th game 3-0. CHICAGO Manager Leo Durocher continued to rest some of his regulars. Hector Torres moved in for slumping Shortstop Don Kessinger, and Paul Popovich replaced Glenn Beckert at second. Torres fielded superbly, Popovich helped beat his old Dodger teammates with a home run and Durocher was pleased with his team's 18-9 record in June. "That was no accident," said Leo, who is determined to go into this September with a team that is not tired. "The last two years we beat everybody in April and May and ended up in the outhouse. Maybe this year we can turn it around." Remember the name: Cruz. It may proliferate like Alou. ST. LOUIS recalled Jose Cruz from the minors, and he aided a 7-2 win over the Giants with his first major league home run. Cruz has 10 brothers, two of whom already are playing in the Cardinals' farm system. Matty Alou, incidentally, also hit a home run for the Cards in the same Giant defeat. PHILADELPHIA General Manager John Quinn announced that the Phillies would raise the height of the outfield fences at the new Veterans Stadium from eight feet to 12 feet. Too many line drives have been bouncing over the fence for ground-rule doubles. In MONTREAL the big news was that the hockey season was only three months away.

PITT 51-30 NY 45-32 CHI 40-37 ST. L 41-40 PHIL 33-47 MONT 30-48

NL WEST

Whille Mays was exhausted, Willie McCovey was limping, Chris Speier had spasms in his back and Dick Dietz had high blood pressure, so SAN FRANCISCO Manager Charlie Fox, alias Marcus Welby M.D., bravely started a lineup that included such names as Ed Goodson, Floyd Wicker, Frank Duffy and Fran Healy. "Can you win the pennant with this lineup?" someone asked Fox. "We may win them all," he said. The scrubs went against Bob Gibson in their first game and lost 7-2. San Francisco was 13-15 during the month, LOS ANGELES, now only 5½ games behind, was 17-11. The Dodgers continued to get excellent pitching from Al Downing, who beat the Padres for his 10th victory, and Don Sutton, who won his seventh game in eight starts. "I've never pitched better," said Sutton, who only a month ago discussed retirement. HOUSTON had an off day, so Pitcher Larry Dierker played golf and on a 185-yard hole he hit a six-iron into the cup for his first ace. Buoyed, Dierker finally won his 11th game after four attempts, a six-hitter over CINCINNATI. The Reds, meanwhile, tried picking an All-Star team. First Baseman Lee May received 26 of a possible 27 votes; Catcher Johnny Bench barely edged out Manny Sanguillen of the Pirates, and neither Tony Perez nor Pete Rose got a vote for his position. What a difference a year makes. ATLANTA Shortstop Zoilo Versalles expected that passport problems would not permit him to accompany the Braves to Montreal, so he made plans to visit his family in Minnesota. Then Traveling Secretary Donald Davidson called Expos General Manager Jim Fanning, who somehow wrangled the right papers. The grateful Versalles thanked Fanning by doubling home the winning runs one night. Nate Colbert hit his 16th and 17th home runs, and both Clay Kirby and Steve Arlin pitched complete-game victories as SAN DIEGO won two of three from the Giants.

SF 52-30 LA 46-35 HOUS 39-39 ATL 41-45 CIN 37-46 SD 28-54