Outlaws Make Move in West
L.A. Clings to Narrow Hope After 10-2 Run
LOS ANGELES (Sep. 14) -- Hold the phone, the West Division race isn't quite over yet.  And it isn't a two-team contest anymore.  The Los Angeles Outlaws, winners of 10 of their last 12 games, have pulled within six games with 16 to play, just close enough to not throw in the towel.  The Outlaws took 5 of 6 games with archrivals San Francisco and swept the Barons at Memorial Stadium.  The offense has been led by the two young Kens: left fielder Ken Singleton is hitting .385 with a 1.069 OPS in September, and owns the sixth best batting average in the league.  Rookie center fielder Ken Henderson slugged .568, drove in 11 runs in his last 11 games, and won the last two Rookie of the Month awards.  Henderson drove in five runs in a 10-5 rout at Dallas Sep. 5, got the game-winning hit in the ninth to beat the Spiders 5-4 on Sep. 8, and was 4-for-5 in a 5-1 win at Cleveland Sep. 13. 

And while L.A. has the worst bullpen in the league, its starters rank third in ERA, and have shone of late.  Larry Dierker, Fritz Peterson, and Chuck Dobson all have ERAs under 2.20 in the month of September, and Johnny Kucks is 4-3, 3.13 since joining the team in late July.  Outlaws also occupy high places on the pitching leaderboards.  Peterson is second in wins with 16, and Larry Dierker is just two behind Atlanta's Steve Carlton for the strikeout title.

A six-game margin is a lot of ground to cover in just over two weeks, and the Outlaws have no more head-to-head matchups with Atlanta or Dallas.  However, 13 of their final 16 games are against teams with losing records (St. Louis, Chicago, and Manhattan), and after last year's epic collapse by the Detroit Griffins nobody is counting anybody out just yet.

A Torre Tiara?
Joe Sizes Up First UL Triple Crown
ATLANTA (Sept. 13) -- With just 16 games left on the regular season calendar, Joe Torre has dollars-to-donuts locked up his third Most Valuable Player Award in four years, but the Hilltoppers' 31-year-old first baseman is on the verge of an ever rarer feat -- winning the UL's first Triple Crown, for either hitting or pitching. 

Torre, the 1968 and 1969 MVP with the Manhattan Gray Sox, is hitting .383 with 40 home runs and 136 RBIs.  His 36-point lead over Dallas' Willie Crawford makes his third batting title a safe bet (a career .338 hitter, Torre hit .375 and .379 en route to batting titles in 1968 and 1969).  His 136 RBIs gives him just under one one RBI per game and a comfortable 23-RBI cushion over of Boston's Orlando Cepeda.  But the one area where Torre may yet stumble is in home runs.  While Joe has led the batting and RBI races since mid-May, he has battled Orlando Cepeda, Frank Robinson, and Dick Allen for long-ball supremacy.  Torre's 40 clouts is just a pair ahead of Cepeda and Robinson.  Torre's 5 home runs so far in September were enough to overtake Robinson, who has just two this month, and to stay ahead of Cepeda, who has four in September.

On nine previous occasions has a batter come one leg short of the batting Triple Crown, most recently Detroit's Reggie Jackson in 1969, and seven pitchers have claimed two-thirds of the pitching Triple Crown.  Even if Orlando or Frank steal the home run title in the last days of the season, Torre would still become just the second player to win batting and RBI championships in the same season -- as Granny Hamner did in 1959 and 1961.  Torre is also well-poised to post the second highest RBI total in league history, and has an outside chance to top Dick Allen's 1965 record of 151 RBIs.  He needs 15 RBIs in 16 games to equal this mark.  Not impossible consider he has 16 in his last 12.

Two-Thirds of Batting Triple Crown
1951 - Ralph Kiner, DET (HR-tied, RBI)
1953 - Ralph Kiner, DET (HR, RBI)
1958 - Willie Mays, WAS (HR, RBI)
1959 - Granny Hamner, BRO (BA, RBI)
1960 - Mickey Mantle, BRO (HR, RBI)
1961 - Granny Hamner, BRO (BA, RBI)
1964 - Hank Aaron, LA (HR, RBI)
1967 - Orlando Cepeda, BOS (HR, RBI)
1969 - Reggie Jackson, DET (HR, RBI)

Two-Thirds of Pitching Triple Crown
1952 - Stu Miller, WAS (ERA, K)
1953 - Stu Miller, WAS (ERA, W)
1956 - Johnny Antonelli, LOU (W, K)
1958 - Carl Erskine, WAS (ERA, W)
1959 - Gene Conley, BRO (ERA, W)
1968 - Bob Moose, SF (ERA, K)
1970 - Bill Singer, CHI (ERA, W)

Keys to the Pennant
WASHINGTON	BOSTON	DETROIT
Two Rays to Win Having led the division since late June and with last year's playoff experience, it is Washington's pennant to lose.  The Monuments offense isn't quite what it was a year ago, and manager Doug Aiton will need Ray Fosse to step up his production in the final two weeks.  Fosse, the cleanup hitter vs. righties and #2 hitter vs. lefties, is hitting just .258 with a .664 OPS after a stellar rookie campaign (.309-20-106). The other Ray that must shine for the Mons to pull off the first East Division title defense in seven years is closer Ray Narleski.  The 42-year-old all-time saves leader has proven to be remarkably durable, with 67 appearances last year and 50 so far this year.  But should he fall, bullpen duties would fall to an inexperienced crew comprised of four rookies or second-year players. Washington will also need to squeeze a couple more quality starts out of Rick Wise, sidelined for another week with a herniated disk, and will hope that veteran ace Johnny Podres doesn't fall back into his August slump (1-3, 6.75).	Hot Shorts For a team with five pitchers on the long-term DL, it comes as no surprise that the key to Boston's pennant hopes rides on the continued success of its fill-in players, especially starter Chris Short (9-2, 2.44), the club's former ace who started the year in Philadelphia.  A former 19-game winner, Short has already matched his 1970 win total (9) in half the number of starts and is 4-0 since Aug. 16. Given the fragility of the pitching staff, particularly the bullpen, another key will be the lineup maintaining its high level of run production.  The circuit's third-ranked offense ebbs and flows with the current form of Orlando Cepeda (.277-38-113) and Rico Petrocelli (.316-32-105).  The slugging duo are the only teammates in the league with 100+ RBIs, but no other Fed has more than 49 RBIs, so when they slump, so too does the team.  Fortunately for manager Brendan Harris, Cepeda's September OPS (.901) is his highest since April, and Petrocelli continues to average an RBI a game despite a .208 average in September.	Steady Hands Sitting 2 1/2 games out and with two teams to overtake, the Griffins face the longest odds of the three East Division contenders, and any hopes of snagging the pennant in the last two weeks of the season probably hinge on a sweep of the five head-to-head encounters with Washington and Boston in the final week.  Much will depend on a strong finish for two key pitchers: Bill "Froggy" Hands and Tex Clevenger. Hands (7-12, 3.45) has been the most erratic of Detroit's starters.  He was 0-5, 6.00 in five August starts, but has allowed just one earned run in his last two outings.  The Aug. 31 injury to Joe Hoerner thrust veteran Tex Clevenger back into the closer role, but despite 30 saves last year, Tex has been shaky at best this year, with six losses and a 5.64 ERA.  Interim manager Aidan Smith has some options, however, with lefthander Ramon Hernandez (4-2, 2.71) and rookie righthander Jim York, who posted a 2.33 ERA with Toronto and was second in the International League with 20 saves.

     

WEST DIVISION Joe Torre started the month with a bang with 6 RBI on the 1st, and hit .463 in 11 games to lift his average to .383.     Jim McAndrew kept the Texans' fading pennant hopes alive with 8 shutout innings in a 4-0 win at S.F. Sep. 12. . . Rod Carew is  hitting .390 with 7 RBIs in his last 10 games.       Ken Henderson had 4 hits and 5 RBIs in a 10-5 win over Dallas Sep. 5.          Wilbur Wood tossed a 3-hit shutout of St. Louis Sep. 5, and is second in the league with a 2.40 ERA.      Mike de la Hoz is the Maroons' hottest hitter, leading the club with 13 hits and a .361 average in September.     The Spiders lost 5 out of 6 games with Los Angeles. . . Bob Moose is 4-1, 1.06 in last 6 starts.

EAST DIVISION Bernie Carbo's 12th inning grand slam beat Brooklyn 5-2 on Sep. 9 kept the Mons in first place. . . Richie Hebner hit .550 in his last 12 games.   Mike Cuellar and Jerry Koosman pitched successive shutouts vs. St. Louis Sep. 11-12, but the Feds lost the third game and failed to climb back into a first place tie. . . Cuellar has a 0.53 ERA in his last 2 starts.   Bill "Froggy" Hands pitched a six-hit shutout on Sep. 3, ending a 10-start winless streak.       "Terrific" Tom Seaver's 4-hit CG on Sep. 6 was his first win since July 16, ending a winless run of nine starts.  He added a 3-hit shutout his next time out.    After a 12-1 run in late August, the Barons lost 12 of 13 to fall back to 15 games behind. . . Alan Foster is 0-8 in his last 11 starts.     Joe Coleman anchored a four-hit shutout at Cleveland Sep. 6 to stave off his 20th loss. . . Tom Murphy was 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA in two starts after a callup from Twin Cities.