Since the All-Star break, Jim Leyland's Detroit Tigers have hit a wall, playing just .500 baseball and seeing their lead in the AL Central Division slowly fade away.

While the Tigers stable of young pitching has been the toast of the town in Detroit, they have continued to carry the team in the midst of the pennant chase, as the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox bearing down on them.  

Fortunately for the Tigers Nate Robertson, Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman have all been able to right the ship after shaky outings in August, but it might not be enough if they can't muster a consistent offensive attack.  

The Tigers team batting average of .274 ranks them below both the ChiSox and Twins on the season. However, even more telling is the club's walk to strikeout ratio of 357/975, which has them ranked behind every team in the AL except for the Seattle Mariners and Tampa Bay Devil Rays in team on-base percentage (OBP).

While that alone may be bad enough, it has gotten even worse over the last month.  Only the free-falling Boston Red Sox have been in a bigger offensive slump than the Tigers, with both teams giving up more runs than they have scored over the last 30 days.

The Tigers attempted to shake things up recently by releasing Dmitri Young and his career .289/.346/.476 line, despite his ability to switch hit, and the flexibility that would add heading into the playoffs. This move opens up more playing time for Marcus Thames, who saw his career blossom early in the season with Young on the DL.   

In addition, with shortstop Carlos Guillen's and second-bagger Placido Polanco set to return soon, less playing time for Neifi Perez could only help a struggling offense too. 

This weekend's series with the Twins may have meant more to the struggling Tigers as they attempt to make a stand to hold off the hard charging teams behind them in the standings.  

Of course, even with some offensive improvement by the Tigers, it may not be enough to hold off everyone's favorite underdog -- the Minnesota Twins. The small market club once again finds itself in the midst of the playoff race relying upon a formula of youthful enthusiasm peppered with a touch of pitching and defense.  

Behind an offense powered by Joe Mauer and Justin Mourneau, both with less than 400 major league games under their belts, and a pitching staff led by Johan Santana, possibly the most dominant lefty in baseball, Minnesota has been able to climb from, seemingly, out of nowhere early in the 2006 campaign into the middle of the Central Division race.

However, like the Tigers, the Twins have had difficulty engineering any offense outside of Mauer and Mourneau in the middle of the lineup. Luckily, they have been fortunate to receive some unexpected spark from Nick Punto and Jason Bartlett after being installed in the lineup. But, both players provide very little power, similar to leadoff man Luis Castillo, making this a lineup that must manufacture runs to fill the scoreboard.

The Twins did acquire Phil Nevin from the Cubs to provide some power out of the DH slot, but he's gotten off to a slow start since joining the team and has already started to lose playing time to Jason Tyner, the owner of exactly zero career home runs over 800 plus career at-bats in the majors.

The Twins have to hope Francisco Liriano can regain his midseason form upon returning from the DL next week, and that they are still in the race if, and when, Brad Radke returns after resting his arm for 10 days.

Ron Gardenhire's Twins may be running out of steam, and could find themselves eliminated from the race before hosting the White Sox for the final weekend series.

Lastly, there is the looming elephant in the corner, the Chicago White Sox, who are currently behind both the Twins and Tigers in the standings.

With the off season additions of Javier Vazquez and Jim Thome, the World Champs were once again expected to be in the thick of things in the Central Division. However, the team has found themselves trying to keep up with the Tigers all season long.

While last year's team was anchored by a pitching staff, which promptly went on to dominate throughout the playoffs after a great regular season run, Kenny Williams proceeded to add Vazquez to an already strong staff, teaming him with Mark Buehrle, Jose Contreras, Freddy Garcia and Jon Garland heading into the season.

What was considered by many to be the best starting staff in the AL, has been a bit of a disappointment, due in part to a propensity to give up the long ball. The White Sox staff has offered up the third most round trippers in the AL, ranking them behind only the Baltimore Orioles and Kansas City Royals  

The four carry-over starters from last season have all seen their ERAs jump from the 3's to the 4's or higher, and the season Vazquez has put together could be labeled as mediocre at best. However, while the Twins and Tigers have their offensive worries, that is the least of the White Sox problems, as they stand are the top AL squad in slugging, total bases, home runs and hits.

Head-to-head, the Sox hold an 11-5 advantage in the win column over Detroit, and host the Tigers for a three-game series next weekend, before taking on the Twins in the Metrodome over the season's final weekend.

All three of these teams are capable of going on a run over the next few weeks, as they have at times during the regular season. However, with several games against each other left on the schedule, regardless of what happens, it's sure to be exciting.  

Unfortunately, only one team can finish first. But, for the team that finishes second, the consolation prize is the Wild Card and a chance to exact revenge on the one team that finished ahead of them in standings when it really counts --  in the playoffs.