Going into this weekend, the closest division race in the American League is the AL Central. While the Cleveland Indians were idle on Thursday night, the Detroit Tigers scored a 4-1 win over the Seattle Mariners to move them within one game of first place.
With the Tribe beginning a four-game series at Yankee Stadium on Friday night, and the Tigers continuing their set with the Mariners, Detroit could very well hold the top spot in the division by the end of the weekend.
The Tigers have made quite a jump in the standings over the past six weeks. At the beginning of May, Jim Leyland's club was eight games behind the Tribe. They were even 3 1/2 games back of the Kansas City Royals, leaving them in third place and looking like one of the biggest disappointments in baseball.
What has keyed the Tigers' turnaround? Besides the typically excellent Justin Verlander and Miguel Cabrera, these five players have stood out.
1. Alex Avila began the season looking like he should be playing in Triple-A Toledo. But he's now one of the top offensive catchers in baseball. His .564 slugging percentage and .923 OPS are tops at the position. Only Toronto's J.P. Arencibia has more homers and RBI. And after hitting two triples on Thursday, Avila is tied for the most (three) among major league catchers.
2. Jhonny Peralta has provided surprising production at shortstop. The Tigers signed him to a two-year contract in the offseason, a transaction that carried a whiff of desperation. But Peralta has made general manager Dave Dombrowski look brilliant. His .313 batting average is tops among shortstops, while his 33 RBI are sixth. And only Asdrubal Cabrera and Troy Tulowitzki have more home runs at the position.
3. Brennan Boesch may have finally given the lineup a No. 3 hitter to bat in front of Miguel Cabrera. In his last 10 games, Boesch has batted 15-for-41 (.366) with four home runs and 12 RBI. That includes Monday's 5-for-6, two-homer game against Texas that may still be giving Colby Lewis nightmares.
4. Rick Porcello has regained his 2009 rookie form. Since giving up 10 combined runs in his first two starts of the season, he's allowed two or fewer runs in eight of his past nine appearances. Porcello's 3.58 ERA is second among the Tigers' starting pitchers.
5. Joaquin Benoit looked like a free-agent bust, especially after a disastrous six-game stretch when he allowed 12 runs in five innings. Since then, however, he's had nine straight scoreless outings. That's helped to settle down a Detroit bullpen that was giving up too many leads and wasting good starting pitchign earlier in the season.
But let's not forget it takes two to tango. The Tigers couldn't have made up seven games in the standings solely by themselves. The Indians have let them back in the race. Many predicted that the Tribe couldn't maintain their early success and they're experiencing some serious regression now, losing 11 of their last 15 games.
Perhaps not coincidentally, as the Plain Dealer's Terry Pluto points out, that's also when Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana went absolutely cold at the plate. Injuries to Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore obviously haven't helped, either.
The next seven games, including three at Comerica Park next week, could determine if the Indians can stave off the Tigers and continue their run atop the division or sink into a standing that's closer to most preseason predictions.
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