Tigers back in first place after brief stint behind the Royals

Cleveland (6-11) sits in last place

DETROIT – The American League Central Division has long been regarded as the worst division in the American League. Though the Detroit Tigers have dominated the Central over the last four years, the AL East, with the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays and Orioles, and West, with the A's, Angels and Rangers, offered greater depth and finished the season with the top seeds in the AL.

But over the last two seasons, the AL Central has made a bit of a charge toward the top. In 2013, it sent the Tigers and Indians to the postseason with 93 and 92 wins, respectively. Last year, Kansas City replaced Cleveland and ran all the way to the World Series.

The Central is the only division in the AL to send two teams to the postseason in each of the last two years, and now that depth has finally evolved into a division race that may outshine all the others.

Detriot and Kansas City own the best records in the AL, with Chicago and Minnesota hovering around .500 and Cleveland struggling out of the gates. The season is only three weeks old, but already some important trends are starting to form.

Here's a look at this week's AL Central headlines:

Detroit Tigers (13-6)

Slam the door, Joakim: Week 3 was another good one for Tigers closer Joakim Soria, who closed out all three of the team's wins and allowed just one run on a solo homer to David Murphy.

Soria will take over full-time closing duties for the remainder of the season after Joe Nathan was shut down with a UCL tear. Soria has allowed a run twice in nine appearances this season, resulting in a 2.08 ERA and a perfect 7-7 in save chances. He struggled Sunday, allowing the Murphy home run and his first walk of the season, but shut down the Indians for his 7th save of the year.

Alburquerque, we have a problem: Al Alburquerque, who was Detroit's best bullpen arm a year ago, is off to a horrendous start in 2015. In his last three appearances, Alburquerque has allowed seven earned runs on three homers, six hits and four walks.

The 28-year-old righty hasn't had his 95 mph fastball so far this year, instead living in the low-90s and serving up longballs because of it. Now opponents are sitting on the slider because they don't have to worry about Alburquerque blowing the heat past them.

Though he posted a 2.51 ERA and struck out 63 batters in 57.1 innings last year, Alburquerque needs to work through his issues soon, or he could find himself out of the Tigers' 'pen.

Inside the park: Anibal Sanchez didn't win his 4th start of the season, but he did bounce back from two awful starts that put the state of the starting rotation into question.

Sanchez allowed five homers and 14 earned runs in his previous two starts, both loses. But on Thursday, he held the Yankees to just one hit over 6.1 innings and struck out eight. For the Tigers' rotation to remain one of the best in the league, Sanchez absolutely has to be a premier No. 2 starter. When his electric stuff returned on a cold Thursday in Detroit, he took a big step in the right direction.

A tale of two Nicks: On Tuesday, Nick Castellanos went 1-3 and extended his career long hitting streak to nine games. His batting average, which was previously hovering near the Mendoza line, shot up to .298 as he continued to pile up hits.

All of a sudden, Castellanos is ice cold.

His streak ended with an 0-4 on Wednesday and carried over into the Indians series. Now, Castellanos is just 1-19 in his last five games, dropping his average to .227 on the year.

When the Tigers were rolling to an 11-2 start, they were led by a lineup that was clicking from the leadoff hitter to Jose Iglesias at the bottom. If Castellanos struggles out of the No. 7 slot, it opens a major hole in the bottom third.

Kansas City Royals (12-6)

So misunderstood: For some reason, the Kansas City Royals have burst out of the gates fighting; and I don't mean in a baseball sense.

After the benches cleared for three straight games against the Oakland A's last week, Royals pitcher Yordano Ventura swore at Chicago's Adam Eaton while fielding a ground ball that came back to the mound. Ventura's antics brought both benches onto the field, and MLB handed out a slew of significant suspensions after punches were thrown.

It's unclear why the Royals feel the need to fight every team they line up against. But if they keep it up, they'll wear down under the added rigors of a 162-game season.

The new kid can hit: Kansas City has enjoyed contributions up and down its lineup, but maybe the most unexpected was the return to All-Star form by Kendrys Morales.

Morales struggled in 2014, hitting just .218 with eight home runs with the Mariners and Twins. But now, the first-year Royal is batting .319 with seven extra-base hits and 11 RBI.

Morales hit 90 homers from 2009-2013, driving in a total of 300 runs for the Angels and Mariners. The Royals took a gamble on the 31-year-old during the offseason, and so far it's paying off.

Finish strong: The Royals' pitching staff is off to a strange start this season. Of their eight relief pitchers, none have an ERA over 1.80. At the same time, none of their starting pitchers have an ERA below 1.80 (three of their five starters are sitting above 4.00).

As the starting rotation struggles, the Royals will put even more pressure on their bullpen, which will almost certainly inflate those sparkling clean numbers. But for now, Kansas City is nearly unbeatable with it hands the bullpen a lead.

Chicago White Sox (8-9)

The Jose Abreu band: Last season Jose Abreu won the AL Rookie of the Year award. Now, he's showing that 2014 was no fluke.

Through 18 games, Abreu leads the White Sox in batting average (.324), home runs (5), RBI (14) and on-base percentage (.377). His 45 total bases are nearly double that of any other teammate, and he accounts for 42 percent of Chicago's home runs.

The White Sox are struggling offensively out of the gates, but when the rest of the lineup catches up to Abreu, Robin Ventura's team is going to score enough runs to get back in the race.

I'm good here, thanks: In general, strong offensive teams that don't hit home runs make up for the lack of power with speed and aggressive base running. For the White Sox, that's certainly not the case.

Chicago ranks 14th in the AL in terms of home runs and sits in dead last with only four stolen bases. That's a combination to win with, and since the home runs aren't coming, the top of the White Sox order will have to get into scoring position more often.

Minnesota Twins (8-10)

Win the week!: With a 6-4 record over their last 10 games, the Minnesota Twins are officially the hottest team in the AL Central. Minnesota finished off a series win in Seattle over the weekend, taking Game 3 with two runs in the 11th inning.

Since starting the season an abysmal 1-6, the Twins have ripped off seven wins in 11 games to stay out of the division cellar. With 11 straight home games ahead, the Twins might have a chance to creep towards the .500 mark.

Station to station: The Twins are one of two MLB teams that have yet to hit 10 home runs on the season. Trevor Plouffe and Kurt Suzuki are the only Minnesota players to hit two homers through the first 18 games, while starters Joe Mauer, Shane Robinson and Danny Santana have not hit their first.

On paper, Minnesota will not be a good pitching team. So to mask an average starting staff, the Twins have to score runs; but a .226 team batting average and almost no power is a poor recipe to do so.

Cleveland Indians (6-11)

The weight of the world: Cleveland was a popular pick to win the AL Central this season, but so far that pressure seems to have gotten to the young Indians.

Since winning their opening series against the Houston Astros, the Indians have lost four series and split a pair of early games with the White Sox. As a result, Cleveland finds itself squarely on the bottom of the division and 1.5 games behind the Twins. Yes, it's very early in the season. But the Indians, who are chasing three other legitimate Central contenders, don't want to dig a much deeper hole.

Losing when it matters most: Despite winning the division title in each of the last four years, the Tigers have never entered the postseason with the best record in the AL. Rather, Detroit has used the recipe of beating up on fellow division teams to rise to the top.

But Cleveland is doing the opposite in 2015. The Indians are 0-4-1 in series with AL Central opponents and own a record of 4-10 in those games. If the Tribe really wants to take the crown away from the Tigers, losing to division rivals is not the way to start.

Bourn to be wild: As a team, the Indians have been a train wreck offensively, batting .237 with only 15 home runs on the season. Easily the coldest bat belongs to Michael Bourn, who was dropped from leadoff to the No. 9 spot Sunday against the Tigers.

The reason for Bourn's demotion? How about a .169 batting average, .239 on-base percentage and 17 strikeouts. As a leadoff hitter, Bourn has crippled the Cleveland offense by failing to get on base.

Of Bourn's 11 hits on the year, nine are singles and two are doubles. The former speedster has stolen only one base and drew six walks in 16 games.

Terry Francona recently turned to Jason Kipnis, the team leader with 16 hits, to bat on top of the order.

Looking ahead:

With three weeks in the books, the AL Central is still a two-team race between the Tigers and Royals, with the White Sox lurking in the third spot. Each passing series means the Indians are falling further behind and increasing the ground they'll have to make up if they hope to remain relevant this season.

Still, there are 143 games left on the schedule and only six games separate the first-place Tigers from the last-place Indians. Detroit's next 16 games come against AL Central opponents, so we'll learn even more about the race in the coming weeks.

This week's games:

Tigers: 3 @ Minnesota, 4 @ Kansas City
Royals: 3 @ Cleveland, 4 vs. Detroit
White Sox: 3 @ Baltimore, 4 @ Minnesota
Twins: 3 vs. Detroit, 4 vs. Chicago
Indians: 3 vs. Kansas City, 4 vs. Toronto