The Detroit Tigers and Minnesota Twins are taking their fight for the AL Central right to the finish.

Several important players on both teams have been injured, and others have slumped. The Kansas City Royals and Cleveland Indians were supposed to be better than this. The Chicago White Sox made several moves this summer while trying to defend their division title, but couldn't put together a serious September challenge.

About the only predictable development in this decidedly mediocre group has been the existence of an actual pennant chase. Just ask the clairvoyant Jim Leyland.

"I don't want to sound like a prophet, but I said a long time ago at the start of the season that there was a good chance this thing would go down to the last week, last few games," the Tigers manager said.

Leyland's team beat Cleveland 6-5 on Thursday night to extend its lead over the idle Twins to three games.

Neither league, American or National, has experienced much excitement in 2009. Almost all of the eight playoff spots seemed secure when September started, eliminating the usual intrigue surrounding the final weeks. The teams at the top are the typical big spenders, too. The Central race has been more of a crawl, with the Tigers unable to run away with the lead they took in early May.

The winner almost certainly will have the worst record in the postseason this year, but hey, it's all baseball's got this year.

"Everybody knows what's going on," rookie right-hander Rick Porcello of Detroit said. "We're in the heat of it right now, and it's pretty fun."

The Tigers (82-70) and Twins (79-73) are sure to take this to the wire, playing out Leyland's forecast with four more games between them set for next week in Detroit. Minnesota leads the season series 9-5.

"They know what our score is every night. We know what their score is. We all know what's going on," Leyland said. "But we have four very important games before we play them, and they have three games before they face us."

The division was deep in 2006, when the Twins trailed by 12½ games and caught the Tigers on the last day of the regular season. Detroit was the wild-card team and went to the World Series.

This year, the Twins were never behind by more than seven games, and that was less than three weeks ago: Sept. 6. With a resurgent rotation, some shaky saves by Joe Nathan and career-best production from Michael Cuddyer, they've won nine of their last 10.

At no point in the season have they been under or over the .500 mark by more than six games.

"We're going to hang in there," said Cuddyer, who moved from right field to first base when Justin Morneau suffered a season-ending back injury. "I've always said that our season parallels the game. We hang in there until the eighth or ninth and try to get something done. Right now in the season, this is the eighth and ninth inning and we're trying to get something done."

The Twins were chasing the White Sox a year ago and played a tiebreaker game for the division title, losing 1-0 in Chicago. Though Minnesota is again playing solid defense, the bullpen has improved, and Cuddyer (29), Joe Mauer (28) and designated hitter-outfielder Jason Kubel (24) have each reached career highs in home runs, last year's team was a lot better.

The contact hitters were bunting, running and getting on base in 2008, and the young starting pitching was sound. This summer, Kevin Slowey and Glen Perkins got hurt, Francisco Liriano fell out of the rotation and Nick Blackburn has been revived only recently. The infield has been in flux and unable to produce much offense, and that's including Morneau: He hit .201 after the All-Star break until getting hurt.

Here they are, though, continuing to play games that count.

"It's not about trying to prove anything to anybody, other than we're trying to win," manager Ron Gardenhire said.

Starting pitching was Detroit's strength, but All-Star Edwin Jackson has fallen off some after the break and trade-deadline acquisition Jarrod Washburn has been injured and a bust. Porcello (14-9) will be asked to make two more starts down the stretch — quite the responsibility for a 20-year-old.

Until Wednesday's 11-3 win over the woeful Indians, the Tigers had given up more runs this year than they'd scored despite another standout season by slugger Miguel Cabrera. Yet here they are, the division leaders for the last 4½ months, with a prime chance to make the playoffs for the second time in four seasons.

"You always want to go to the final week with something to play for, so this is exactly where we want to be," Detroit third baseman Brandon Inge said. "This is what it is all about, what you prepare for in spring training. It feels great."