The Week (april 21-27)

Moved from the No. 5 spot in the lineup to No. 3, Amos Otis of the Royals went 9 for 16. Nelson Briles was shelved for knee surgery, but his replacement—Al Fitzmorris—beat the Red Sox twice in five days, 5-2 and 10-3.

Minnesota, 2-3, decked Detroit on Steve Braun's 10th-inning homer and the five-hit pitching of Dick Woodson and Bill Campbell. Robust hitting carried California past the A's 9-5 but then the Angels lost four times. Slumping Nolan Ryan ost to the Indians 4-2, walking seven men in 6? innings and raising his season's total to 30 in 36? innings.

TEX 11-7 OAK 10-8 CAL 9-10 MINN 8-9 KC 8-9 CHI 7-10

AL EAST

"How about putting a little white propeller on the caps? Then we'll really look neat." That was the reaction of Pitcher Bill Lee to changes in the Red Sox uniform that made many recoil: red inserts in the caps, solid red socks instead of the traditional red, white and blue ones. Boston hit only two homers in a 2-5 week, and it did not help that opponents stole 12 bases, giving them a total of 22 in 27 attempts as regular Catcher Carlton Fisk remained benched with a groin injury.

Reliever John Hiller excelled for the Tigers. In 13 innings he allowed just one run as he picked up his third win and two saves. Jim Northrup beat the Brewers 6-5 with a 14th-inning double, but it was Willie Horton who kept the Tigers in that game with a home run and three superb catches in left field. And Eddie Brinkman slugged two homers in a game for the first time in his 11-year career. With such Aaronisms, Detroit was 3-2 and stayed in fifth place. Designated Hitter Al Kaline was jogging in the dugout runway between trips to the plate. Thus limbered up, the 39-year-old Kaline was batting .309, having picked up 21 hits on the season. He has 118 hits to go to reach 3,000.

Milwaukee, 2-3, stayed atop the East as Jim Slaton beat the Twins 9-0 four days after his wild pitch had cost him a 3-2 loss to Chicago. The Twins seem to bring out the best in the Brewers, who beat them eight times in 12 games last season and who also downed them 4-3 last week.

Only percentage points back were the Orioles, 4-2. Three times they won in extra innings: 6-5 over the Yankees on Mike Reinbach's 13th-inning hit; 4-3 over the Angels on Rich Coggins' 10th-inning hit; and 6-5 over the A's on a 200-foot sacrifice fly by Andy Etchebarren in the 15th.

Yankee players were stunned by a trade that sent almost half the pitching staff—Fred Beene, Fritz Peterson, Steve Kline and Tom Buskey—to the Indians for First Baseman Chris Chambliss and Pitchers Dick Tidrow and Cecil Upshaw. Ironically, strong pitching enabled the Yankees to split six games. Cleveland, 3-2, still struggled in the cellar even though Chambliss got a three-run double in his last at bat as an Indian to beat the Angels 4-3, and the Perrys both won. Jim stopped the Angels 6-0 and Gaylord stymied the A's 2-1.

MIL 9-6 BALT 10-7 NY 11-9 BOS 9-10 DET 7-10 CLEV 7-11