AL Central battles heat up weekend

The top spots in the AL Central division will be on the line this weekend as the contending clubs square off in a pair of series. The Detroit Tigers will continue their set in Minnesota against the Twins on Friday (8:10pm ET), while the Chicago White Sox start a three-game set in Cleveland against the Indians (7:05pm ET).

The Indians and Tigers have been the 'class' of the AL Central so far this season, jockeying back and forth between first and second place in the division standings. Neither team, though, has looked as good as the top clubs in the other two AL divisions, and there's little chance that the second-place team will be in contention for the league's Wild Card slot at the end of the regular season.

The White Sox and Twins, meanwhile, are still within shouting distance of the division title, thanks largely to the middling play of everyone else in the division as they're both under .500 heading into the weekend.

For Minnesota that's not a bad place to be right now considering how poorly they started the 2011 season. On Friday night they'll send Brian Duensing (7-7, 4.14 ERA) to the mound to take on Detroit's Max Scherzer (10-5, 4.53 ERA). Lefthander Duensing, though, was bombed by the Tigers in his May 31 outing in Detroit, surrendering six runs on nine hits over 4 2-3 innings of work in that contest.

Righthander Scherzer was Duensing's opponent that day and he wasn't any better, giving up seven runs on nine hits in just 6 2-3 innings pitched. Scherzer escaped with a no-decision that day because his team managed to pull out an 8-7 victory.

Over in the White Sox/Indians series on Friday it'll be Chicago's Gavin Floyd (7-9, 4.37 ERA) taking on Cleveland's Carlos Carrasco (8-7, 4.25 ERA). The White Sox are 2-8 in Floyd's last 10 starts; the Indians are 1-4 in Carrasco's last five outings.

Saturday sees Chicago sending Edwin Jackson (6-7, 3.97 ERA) to the mound against Cleveland's Fausto Carmona (5-10, 5.63 ERA). Righthander Jackson dominated an AL Central rival last time out, blanking the Tigers on nine hits over nine innings of work. Jackson also started against the Tribe back on April 2, allowing three runs (two earned) over six innings to get the win in that game.

Righthander Carmona has pitched his team to back-to-back wins after muddling through a tough May and June. Against the White Sox on May 19, though, Carmona was knocked around for eight runs over five innings of work in a defeat.

With four teams still in contention to take the AL Central title the pennant odds of those clubs are bunched up at Oddsmaker heading into the weekend. Detroit leads the way at +1000 to claim the AL Pennant this season, with Cleveland and Chicago both at +1500, and Minnesota currently sitting as the 'longshot' at just +2000.