The Rangers finished the month of April in first place in a tight AL West. They've battled injuries and bullpen issues, but had 16 wins, matching the 1996 squad for the third-most in team history for the month of April. They had a 3.89 team ERA, the club's fourth-lowest opening month ERA in the last 20 years. Some facts about the month (thanks to Rangers media relations and ESPN Stats & Information):

* April was a memorable month for Michael Young. He was second in the AL with hits at 38, one behind Ichiro Suzuki. It was the third-most hits by a Ranger in the first month of the season behind Pudge Rodriguez's 42 and Juan Gonzalez's 39 in 1998. He led all AL qualifiers with a .538 batting average with runners in scoring position during the month, 2nd in the majors to Atlanta's Brian McCann (.579).

* Rangers Ballpark in Arlington was certainly kind to hitters in April, allowing the most home runs per game at 2.94. That's 47 homers in 16 games in April in Arlington.

* ESPN Stats & Information used Home Run Tracker to calculate the longest-timed homers of the season and Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland is on top of the list for his homer on April 18, which took 6.66 seconds to leave the park going 405 feet. Moreland's average home run distance (with at least three homers hit) was 419 feet, tied for fourth-most in the majors. The Rangers were seventh in average distance of homers as a team.

* Nelson Cruz has hit 14 homers the last two Aprils, tied for fourth-most in the majors in that span (he's tied with Albert Pujols, behind Paul Konerko, Robinson Cano and Ryan Braun).

* Alexi Ogando's .173 opponent batting average versus the fastball was the third-lowest of any starter.

* Batters hit Derek Holland's changeup well in April, posting a .455 batting average off that pitch, the highest of any starter in the majors. C.J. Wilson was next on the list at .421 on his changeup.

* Don't throw a curve to Moreland. He hit opponent curve balls for a .455 average in April, fifth best in the majors in that category. David Murphy, BTW, didn't have a hit off a curve in April.

* Nelson Cruz missed 35.7 percent of the pitches he took swings at, the fifth-highest "miss" percentage in the majors.

* Another interesting note on Adrian Beltre. Home Run Tracker is keeping track of how Beltre is doing with the long ball now that he's not playing most of his games at Fenway Park. Without that short porch and the Green Monster in left field, some wondered if Beltre's production might drop. It hasn't dipped much. But he did hit two long fly balls outs, one to left (April 18) and one to left-center (April 22) that would have been homers in Boston. That would have given him 10 for the month and tied him for the lead in the majors. Just a fun "what if" game.

* The Rangers, who hit 36 homers in April, second only to the Yankees, had their homers travel 2.73 miles in April.