AL NOTEBOOK: CENTRAL IS TOUGH DIVISION TO CRACK.

Byline: DOUG PADILLA  Staff Writer

The Boston Red Sox's sweep of the New York Mets in interleague play last week makes it official: the real World Series this season will be the matchup in the American League Championship Series.

The Mets are the best the National League has to offer at the present time and were unable to break through against the Red Sox, the hottest team in baseball. The AL has no less than five teams playing at a high level right now.

How good will the AL playoffs be this season? Let's put it this way: Of the AL's best teams right now -- the Red Sox, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox and Minnesota Twins -- at least one will not make it to postseason play.

The Red Sox and Twins are playing as well as any AL team has this season. If they both continue their strong play, an interesting series awaits late in the season.

During the final two weeks, when play typically is reserved for division clashes, the Twins will be at Boston for a three-game series Sept.19-21.

That series likely will be more important for the Twins, who started slow this season and are trying to rally into contention. The problem for the Twins is that the AL Central has emerged as a juggernaut.

Just two seasons ago, the AL Central was considered by many as the worst in baseball. Last season, the White Sox, who won the World Series, and the Cleveland Indians played the best baseball in the second half until faltering in the final week.

This year, the Detroit Tigers have arrived with the AL's best pitching staff while the White Sox are pushing them every step of the way. The Twins have been the division's best team in June, winning 16 of their past 18 games before Friday.

Yet all that good play had yielded was a half game in the standings. When the Twins' run of strong play began June8, they trailed the Tigers by 11 1/2 games. Despite just two defeats in three weeks, the Twins still trail the Tigers by 11games and the White Sox by 8 1/2 for the AL wild card.

``That (stinks) doesn't it?'' Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. ``It's nice when we keep doing it, but the other guys keep winning, too. You can't do anything about it.''

Twins backup catcher Mike Redmond participated in similar winning runs with the Atlanta Braves, but those usually put the Braves in control of the NL East. He's never seen anything like this.

``It's unbelievable that you could have three teams playing that well all at once, especially all three of us being in the same division,'' Redmond said. ``It's really unbelievable.''

Hot bat: A 23-year-old lefty catcher is baseball's best hitter. And to think, the Twins' Joe Mauer might have been better at football when he was in high school in St. Paul, Minn.

Mauer went 11 for 13 in the recent three-game sweep of the Dodgers and raised his batting average to .392 heading into the weekend. It still is the first half so starting a .400 watch is a little premature, but if Mauer is hovering around the magical mark by the end of July, the press box at the Metrodome is sure to get busy.

``I'm just feeling pretty comfortable right now,'' Mauer said. ``I'm not trying to do too much and just trying to take what they can give me.''

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