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CHICAGO -- For the Chicago White Sox, the current scenario in the American League Central is a familiar one. They hope it will lead to a different ending, however, as it is the Detroit Tigers who have barged into the leading role.

As you might remember, the White Sox broke from the gate with a burst last season and just kept winning. This year it is the Tigers who threaten that kind of domination.

The White Sox might seem too solid overall to be dominated, but that was probably what the Minnesota Twins were thinking about themselves at this time in 2005. Back then, the Twins were a three-time defending division champ, and despite Chicago's 38-19 start, Minnesota was only 4½ games back in early June.

This time it's the Tigers who are 37-20 and the White Sox who are in second place. At 34-22 they are only 2½ games back, however, and can flip the standings by sweeping Detroit in the three-game series that begins Tuesday night at U.S. Cellular Field.

Neither team has played well lately.

"It is going to be a great series," Guillen said sarcastically on Sunday, after the White Sox finished dropping two of three to Texas. "Both teams are not playing well. They both stink. Hopefully we will play better than them."

The man's got a point, but only for the nearsighted.

Guillen's defending World Series champs have won only three of their last 10 games after reaching a season-best 16 games over .500. The Tigers, awakened from their long slumber by new manager Jim Leyland, have lost six of their last eight after getting to 21 games over .500. Yet even after their recent downturns, the Tigers still have the best record in the majors -- the title that Ozzie Guillen's team loved having for most of 2005 -- while the White Sox are tied for the fifth best.

Magglio Ordonez, the Detroit right fielder and cleanup hitter who spent his first eight seasons in Chicago, says this year's Tigers are a lot like last year's White Sox. He points out the fast start, the strong pitching and the fan support coming out of the woodwork as similarities.

It is getting him a taste of what he missed out when the combination of a knee injury and a high price tag prompted the Sox to allow him to leave as a free agent after the 2004 season.

"I didn't see many [of the White Sox's playoff] games against Boston, the Angels, but I watched the World Series," Ordonez said. "It was sad. I left the way I left, a year earlier, and now my old team was winning the World Series. It was sad. Real sad."

Ordonez's fondest wish is that the Tigers remain the new White Sox. But he isn't getting carried away.

Not yet. "It's early," he said.

That it is, but nothing ages better than a season built around a strong pitching staff. The White Sox did that a year ago, taking their staff ERA from 4.91 to 3.61, which ranked second in the AL. The Tigers are doing that this year. They lead the AL in ERA, and they have done it with balance, getting a 3.77 mark from the starters and a 3.37 mark from the bullpen.

There are items of concern, sure.

Left-hander Mike Maroth, who had gone 5-2 with a 3.56 ERA in his nine starts, underwent surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow on Friday and is expected to miss two to three months. Closer Todd Jones, a 38-year-old strike-thrower who revived his career with 40 saves for Florida last season, has gotten hit around some lately, allowing costly home runs to Jason Giambi and Kevin Youkilis last week.

But the story of the Tigers' season has largely been the addition of veteran lefty Kenny Rogers (7-3, 3.54 in 12 starts) and the emergence of young guns Justin Verlander (7-3, 3.13) and Joel Zumaya (3-0, 2.70 ERA in 21 relief appearances).

Along with Jeremy Bonderman and reliever Fernando Rodney, Verlander and Zumaya give the Tigers one of the most powerful staffs in the majors. Zumaya ran the radar gun up to 100 mph against the Yankees last Thursday, and Verlander has also been in the high 90s this season.

"Like I always say, pitching," Guillen said. "They're pitching real well right now, and the lineup they have is one of the best in the major leagues."

The durability of the Detroit staff will be a key. Last year's White Sox got 162 starts from a group of six pitchers. Mark Buehrle, Jose Contreras, Jon Garland and Freddy Garcia made 32 or 33 starts apiece. Rookie Brandon McCarthy filled the fifth starter's spot whenever Orlando Hernandez wasn't good to go.

The Tigers have made it through 51 games using only the rotation of Rogers, Bonderman, Nate Robertson, Maroth and Verlander but have already tried two different guys in Maroth's spot (Roman Colon and rookie Zach Miner, both acquired from Atlanta in last year's Kyle Farnsworth trade).

A year ago, the White Sox did an amazingly good job dealing with the challenges that came their way. Guillen juggled three different closers, going from 2004 holdover Shingo Takatsu to Dustin Hermanson and then to rookie Bobby Jenks when Hermanson's back gave out in late August. Carl Everett made Frank Thomas' absence basically a nonfactor.

Detroit's recent slide raises some question about its depth. The Tigers have been playing without veteran designated hitter Dmitri Young, whose recent absence has remained unexplained by management. General manager Dave Dombrowski has said only that he is on leave. Marcus Thames, who entered the season as a career .226 hitter at age 29, has filled in nicely so far, but will Leyland be able to make it last?

Like Guillen in 2005, Leyland has put his stamp on his team. He made a strong statement just by taking an offer to replace Alan Trammell.

At 61, Leyland hadn't managed since 1999. He said he didn't want to take over a rebuilding job, and that's how most would have viewed the Tigers. They were 71-91 last season and had averaged an even 100 losses over the last five seasons, including the nightmare 2003 season when they suffered 119 losses, the most ever by an AL team.

Leyland was wise enough to see a sleeping giant in a team that had taken calculated risks in adding free agents Ivan Rodriguez and Ordonez to the core of a solid lineup that already included Carlos Guillen, Young and the quietly productive Craig Monroe.

Leyland made it clear from the start he felt the Tigers could contend in the near future and isn't backing away from that. The one thing he is demanding -- like White Sox GM Kenny Williams' push to build his team around "grinders" -- is a 24/7 commitment to playing the game with effort and intelligence from his players.

Day by day, the Tigers are creating a niche for themselves as a blue-collar team that fits the factory town they are based in.

"These guys give me a good day's work, and fortunately they get a good day's pay," Leyland said. "The fans work hard for their money; we try to earn some of their entertainment dollars ... [Lately] they think we earned some of their money."

A just-completed home stand against the Indians, Yankees and Red Sox tested the Tigers' strength. Results were mixed, with Leyland's team going 4-6. But he was satisfied with how they played, especially the way they maintained their composure after losing the last game of the Indians series and the first three of a four-game set against the Yankees.

Detroit was losing 4-0 on Thursday but came back to win 7-6, stopping its losing streak.

Leyland was impressed with his players' approach during the losses.

"People have a tendency to overreact," he said. "We're going to lose four more in a row at sometime this year, I can assure you of that. I wasn't going to overreact, not going to put too much emphasis on these games. It's nice to get a win for us. I wouldn't be in here pouting if we had lost the game."

When the Tigers lost the first three games of the Yankees series, Leyland knew that some saw it as the beginning of the end.

After all, the next two series were against the Red Sox and White Sox. Skeptics were saying it was time for Cinderella's coach to turn into a pumpkin. But Leyland, sounding like the Guillen of 2005, says maybe it's time for people to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop and to recognize that the Tigers are in this for the long haul.

"Maybe at some point somebody will say, 'Hey, they're pretty good,'" Leyland said. "Instead, people are saying that when they start to play tough teams, they're done. We're not as good as the Yankees yet. That's what we're working toward. But it doesn't mean we're going to go away. We're going to battle our ass off."

Guillen couldn't have said it better.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a Web site at www.chicagosports.com. His book, "Say It's So," a story about the 2005 White Sox, is available at bookstores, through amazon.com or direct order from Triumph Publishing (800-222-4657).