Texas Rangers Hope to Repeat May Success

At this time last April, the Rangers were seven games back of first place in the AL West. They were in a slide that would take them all the way down to a 7-19 record.

Then something happened.

They had one of the best Mays a Texas Ranger team has ever had. They went 18-10 and were six games above .500, their high water mark for the season. It turned out to be a winning summer, but the Rangers could not dig themselves out of an early hole.

This year is different. With three games left in April, the Rangers are only three games out of first, with that merry merry month of May right around the corner.

I'm not saying that the Rangers are definitely going to have the same success they had last May, but let's look at the positives.

The Rangers lead the league in homeruns.

Their defense is solid.

Their pitching staff is finally coming around. After an outstanding five innings from Matt Harrison, they have now given up five runs or fewer in seven of their last 10 games. The bullpen is still lacking something, but with the starters going deeper, it's not as big of an issue.

With all of these things in mind, there is no reason why the Rangers can not be as successful in May '09 as they were in May '08.

And if they can pull it off, watch out Seattle...we're right there in the rear view.

It's going to be an interesting summer...