ARLINGTON, Texas -- Perhaps now that we've hit August, the idea of C.J. Wilson pitching against the Texas Rangers isn't all that unusual. And the red-glove lefty will face his old team once again on Thursday. It's now the beginning of the stretch run in the baseball season and the AL West race is shaping up the way most figured it would.

"Everybody on both teams probably counted on a tighter race than there was in April," Wilson said. "The Rangers got off to a great start. It wasn't very pretty for us. But we've turned it around in May, June and July and played a little bit better and August is another month and you move forward. The season is really long and you can't have a rearview mirror. You can't be sitting there thinking about what happened in April and what work you have to go through. You come in to each game with a new plan and start from scratch."

Wilson said the trade deadline deal to bring Zack Greinke to the Angels gave the club a big boost and reminded him of when Cliff Lee showed up in the Rangers' clubhouse in early July 2010.

"Everybody is really excited," Wilson said. "For me as a pitcher as well, not just as a teammate, I view him as someone I can learn from. He does some things better than I do. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is off the charts. Maybe Cliff is one of the only guys ahead of him the last couple of years. There's some stuff I can pick up from him. I threw with him (Wednesday)."

Wilson is 9-7 with a 2.88 ERA this season, but is winless in his last six starts despite four of his last five being quality starts. He's 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA (six earned runs in 12 innings) this season against the Rangers.

BTW, Wilson now owns a Mazda dealership in the Chicago area (C.J. Wilson Mazda) and the dealership sponsors the postgame show for the White Sox games.