AL Central Weekend Review
The AL Central is quickly blossoming into one of Major League Baseball's most prominent divisions. The present is filled with talent, and perhaps a couple of legitimate contenders, while the future is as bright as it's ever been.
An interesting weekend set the stage for what appears to be a two-horse race for the 2020 division crown. Let's take a look at what happened in this week's AL Central weekend review:
Tigers
The Tigers remained in the depths of a dreaded purgatory, otherwise known as Guaranteed Rate Field over the weekend. Detroit finished winless in seven attempts to defeat the White Sox on the south side this season.
After Sunday's 5-2 loss, the Tigers (20-26) sit 5 ½ games back of the final AL wild card spot and have lost five of their last six games.
While the hopes of a first postseason appearance since 2014 appear to be slipping further away--there were positives to take away from Detroit's three-game set with the White Sox.
The Tigers' No. 2 prospect Casey Mize showed all the qualities of a future ace when he carried a no-hit bid into the sixth inning of Friday's series opener.
.@Casey_Mize did that thing where he makes a batter look silly.#DetroitRoots pic.twitter.com/rZ3zKLEStm
— Detroit Tigers (@tigers) September 12, 2020
The fifth career start for Mize displayed a variety of pitches, all of which he appeared to have command of while giving his club the best chance they had to win all weekend. The 23-year-old right-hander didn't claim his first big league win but showed a glimpse of why the Tigers took him No.1 overall in the 2018 draft.
The Tigers will have Monday off before beginning a six-game homestand that starts with the first of two against a red hot Kansas City Royals team.
White Sox
The White Sox (30-16) have the best record in the American League and sit atop the AL Central division by one full game with the Minnesota Twins (30-18) closely lurking behind.
Chicago is coming off another clean three-game sweep of the Tigers but now prepare for a heavyweight bout with the Twins to begin this week. The four-game set carries substantial AL Central division implications and could decide who ends up taking first place.
After scoring 23 more runs against the Tigers over the weekend, the division's hottest lineup shows no signs of slowing down. The White Sox lead the American League in runs (253), hits (435), doubles (80), home runs(78) and RBI (242).
The new generation of South Side Hitmen. pic.twitter.com/BMS8RRRjoy
— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) September 14, 2020
The usual cast of characters such as Jose Abreu, Tim Anderson, Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada and Eloy Jimenez made their daily contributions to the offensive outpour over the weekend.
However, from a pitching perspective, White Sox fans were granted their first glimpse of right-hander Jonathan Stiever on a big league mound.
The White Sox' No. 6 prospect made his MLB debut in Sunday's series finale with Detroit and lasted 3 ⅔ innings. The 23-year-old wiggled his way out of a stressful 36-pitch first inning during which he surrendered one run.
Stiever settled down with an 11-pitch second inning and finished his debut by retiring the final nine batters he faced.
Royals
Suddenly, the Royals (20-28) have won six in a row, which is their longest winning streak since 2018. Kansas City is fresh off their largest shutout win of the season after defeating the Pirates 11-0 on Sunday.
With a shade under 20 games remaining, the Royals, who have remained fifth in the division for the vast majority of 2020--could leapfrog the Tigers into fourth place if they take both of the two games with Detroit this week.
A jump from last place to fourth won't have any significant division implications, but it would embody manager Mike Matheny's mentality of finishing strong and never losing belief.
"I never lost that hope," Royals manager Mike Matheny said Sunday. "I never doubted this club. I've always said I don't think the rest of the baseball world understands how good of a group we have. That'd be great to get that acknowledgement, but I want these guys to see and believe what I see and believe about them."
During the midst of a rebuild, last week gave Royals fans a pleasant glimpse into their pitching staff's future. Kris Bubic, Brady Singer and Kyle Zimmer, all rookies, earned their first career wins last week. Rookie right-hander Carlos Hernandez also made his MLB debut on Saturday night.
Singer, who the Royals picked out of a talented crop of SEC pitchers in 2018, carried a no-hitter into the eighth inning of Thursday's 11-1 over Cleveland.
The weekend began with impressive pitching and ended with 25-year-old Brad Keller tossing a 5-hit complete game shutout in Sunday's win over the Pirates.
Superbrad. #HEYHEYHEYHEY pic.twitter.com/jaUhPnKrkC
— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) September 13, 2020
Twins
The Twins dealt with multiple key injuries when they lost six in a row to close out the month of August. Minnesota has rediscovered their groove upon the returns of Josh Donaldson and Byron Buxton to the lineup along with Michael Pineda to their rotation.
Minnesota(30-18) sits one game back of the division-leading White Sox and have won eight of their last ten ballgames.
An offense that has dozed off at times this season was well awake during their sweep of the Cleveland Indians last weekend.
The Twins belted a season-high five home runs on Saturday and launched four more over the fence on Sunday. The long ball accounted for six of Minnesota's seven runs in Sunday's series finale with Cleveland.
Bomba Squad’s back alright. #TwinsWin | #MNTwins pic.twitter.com/PpjccSKWr3
— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) September 14, 2020
"I mean, honestly, that's an impressive series offensively that we've had against as good of a pitching staff as I've seen in baseball," Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said. "There's not very many pitching staffs that I've seen in all my time in baseball that you would clearly take over the Indians right now. And we went out there for three straight games and put good swings on them."
After falling as low as third in the division, the Twins have an opportunity to climb back into the top spot if they can prevail in what could be a hard-hitting series with the White Sox.
Indians
The AL Central's best pitching staff took a rare stumble over the weekend when they ran into a Twins lineup with a propensity for hitting home runs.
Minnesota hit 11 homers en-route to becoming the first team to sweep the Indians in a series lasting at least three games this season.
Last weekend's unusual narrative for the Cleveland pitching staff included Shane Bieber taking his first loss of the season in Friday's series opener. The silver lining came in the form of Bieber becoming the fastest pitcher in major-league history to reach 100 strikeouts.
However, that game and the entirety of last weekend is a part of a suboptimal stretch for the Indians that's now reached a season-high six consecutive losses.
The Indians (26-21) currently have a 4 ½ game hold on the American League's second wild card spot. Monday's off-day should provide time to reset and reboot with a weeklong road trip ahead for the Tribe.
