May underway.

If there are 10 true aces in the American League, Seattle has two of them. And the Rangers have put one of the more disappointing March's and April's in recent franchise history behind them by winning back-to-back matchups against Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez on the road, tossing Colby Lewis and Matt Harrison (two pitchers thought a month ago to have mid-to-back-of-rotation ceilings) out there to counter. The result: Texas is amazingly back to .500 (12-12). And in second place in the AL West, half a game behind Oakland, with C.J. Wilson facing Doug Fister this afternoon, a battle between two of the bigger starting pitcher surprises in the league over the first month. Whether or not Texas completes the Seattle sweep, it's a series win to start off May, and series wins are what you shoot for. As the club heads into the second month of the season, the idea will be to replicate what the Rangers did under Ron Washington in May 2008 (19-10) and May 2009 (20-9), not what they did in May 2007 (9-20). =========================================================== To join the free Newberg Report mailing list so you can get e-mail deliveries of every edition of the newsletter, daily minor league game recaps, and frequent Newberg Report News Flashes, go to www.newbergreport.com and click the "Mailing List" link on the top menu bar. (c) Jamey Newberg http://www.newbergreport.com Twitter @newbergreport