Three up, three down | Pitchers Chris Sale, Anibal Sanchez among MLB’s trending topics

A look at what’s trending in Major League Baseball this week:

THREE UP

Chris Sale: The Boston left-hander sacrificed some velocity for efficiency last season, taking a little off his fastball in hopes of inducing earlier contact and pitching deeper into games, but the Big — make that Tall and Skinny — Nasty is back. Sale’s fastball jumped from an average of 92.8 mph in 2016 to 94.4 mph this season, and he has been the best pitcher in baseball, going 5-2 with a 2.34 ERA and an American League-leading 101 strikeouts in 73 innings. Sale, who also has a knee-buckling slider and changeup, struck out 10 or more in eight consecutive starts, he’s limited hitters to a career-low .177 average and leads the league with an 0.81 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning).

Twins Peak: Can the Twins stage a revival similar to its 2002 season after losing 103 games in 2016? Minnesota entered Friday in first place in the AL Central, improving to 25-18 with a three-game sweep in Baltimore. Slugger Miguel Sano has powered the offense with a 1.017 on-base-plus-slugging-percentage, 11 homers and 37 RBIs. Ervin Santana, who gave up a league-high 39 homers in his last season with the Angels in 2012, is 7-2 with an AL-best 1.80 ERA and .134 batting average against. The Twins probably can’t keep up this pace, but they’re making things interesting in the division.

Arizona marketing: Kudos to the Diamondbacks for launching a summer-pass program that allows fans an outfield reserve seat for all 25 home games in June and July for just $50. Baseball needs to attract younger fans, and what better way than a $2 ticket? The 4,000 summer-pass seats went on sale last Sunday and sold out in four days. “This is an affordable way to get people to Chase Field during the hot summer months to see a team that’s playing well,” Arizona President and CEO Derrick Hall said. “We want fans to get into the habit of coming here and seeing that it’s very affordable. I can see a lot of post-college grads, kids on summer break and families taking advantage of this.”

THREE DOWN

Nationals bullpen: Washington’s relief corps is adding to the angst inside the Beltway. The NL East-leading Nats entered Friday with a major league-worst 5.26 bullpen ERA and 24 homers allowed, sixth-most in baseball. Relievers have blown nine of 21 save opportunities. Joe Blanton, set-up savior for the Dodgers last season (7-2, 2.48 ERA in 75 games), has a 9.49 ERA and six homers allowed in 12⅓ innings. He gave up seven homers in 80 innings in 2016. A trade for a closer — Kelvin Herrera (Royals), David Robertson (White Sox), Alex Colome (Rays) and Sean Doolittle (A’s) are among the targets — would allow the Nats to keep their two reliable relievers, Matt Albers and Koda Glover, in setup roles.

Mariners bats: The patience of Seattle manager Scott Servais wore thin Wednesday after his club became the second in the modern era — joining the 1969 Padres — to score one run or less in five straight games while giving up at least 40 runs in that span. “We’ve got to pick up our intensity,” Servais said. “We are better than this. I’ve about had enough of this. We need to dial it up a little bit.” Nelson Cruz stopped the bleeding with a clutch three-run homer in the sixth inning of Thursday’s 4-2 come-from-behind win over Washington, but the Mariners, expected to contend in the AL West, still entered Friday in last place with a 21-27 record.

Anibal Sanchez: Detroit’s five-year, $80-million investment in the right-hander looked sound when Sanchez went 22-13 with a 2.92 ERA and 13 homers allowed in 308 innings in 2013-2014, the first two years of the deal. The next two years? Not so much. Sanchez went 17-23 with a 5.42 ERA and 59 homers allowed in 310 innings in 2015-2016. After a brutal start to 2017 — 9.00 ERA, nine homers allowed in 21 innings of 11 relief appearances — Sanchez, who is making $16 million this season, accepted a demotion to triple-A on Monday even though, with more than five years of big-league experience, he could have refused. Oh, and it will cost the Tigers $5 million to buy out his $16-million option for 2018.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

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