http://0rz.tw/4b2x2 Egad, more Vlad in Rangers' loss 01:44 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 4, 2007 By EVAN GRANT / The Dallas Morning News [email protected] ANAHEIM, Calif. – There is occasional comfort in knowing there are certain constants in life. This is not one of those times for the Rangers. Vladimir Guerrero still wields a big, ugly stick and he is still willing to beat the Rangers silly with it. From the first pitch he saw in the first game of the season right on through Los Angeles' 8-3 win Tuesday, Guerrero hasn't let up on the Rangers one bit. How bad has it been? Guerrero, whose RBI total in the first two games has matched the entire Rangers' lineup run production, entered the season with a .431 career average against the Rangers. It's gone up. After nearly having his frizzy mini-dreadlocks shorn off by a Vicente Padilla fastball in the first inning Tuesday, Guerrero went 4-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs. He is now hitting .440 for his 56-game career against the Rangers. He has 21 homers and 49 RBIs. Padilla buzzed Guerrero with the first pitch he threw him after walking leadoff hitter Gary Matthews Jr. and allowing a single to Orlando Cabrera. Guerrero huffed about the plate for a moment, then lined a single to left to score the Angels' first run. Two innings later, when Padilla challenged him, Guerrero drove a ball into the Disney-fied rock formation in center field. And in the fifth, he singled home another run. In the sixth, the Rangers finally gave up. They intentionally walked him. Guerrero, who hit safely in each of his first 44 games against the Rangers, is on a ridiculous pace against Rangers pitching. If he were to play a typical 550 at-bat season against Texas pitching, he'd be on track for 53 homers and 124 RBIs. "If you looked at my books and where the pitches are that we've thrown him, you'd see he's literally hit everything we've thrown him," pitching coach Mark Connor said. "He hits good pitches; he hits mistakes. Against us, it really doesn't seem to matter what kind of pitches they are." Connor, who has spent parts of eight seasons as a major league pitching coach, said he's never seen another player have the kind of stranglehold on a team the way Guerrero owns the Rangers. The season's first two games have been perfect examples. In the opener, starter Kevin Millwood tried to come inside with a fastball and that's conventional wisdom for attacking Guerrero. Because he's got long arms and because he likes to extend them, throwing him stuff off the plate to the outside is considered even more dangerous. Millwood, however, left the pitch over the plate and Guerrero ripped it into the left-field corner to score Gary Matthews Jr. from first. In the third inning, Millwood simply walked Guerrero with two outs and nobody on. Better to face the dangerous Garret Anderson with a runner on than to pitch to Guerrero. "We've tried just about everything against him without a whole lot of success," Millwood said. "All I try to do is be off the plate against him. I don't want to walk him, but I will. I feel like I've got a better chance against him then." Millwood did get Guerrero to try and pull an outside fastball in the fifth inning and it ended up as an inning-ending double play. Mike Wood got Guerrero to fly out to left field to start the eighth. For the Rangers, those outs have been the exception, rather than the rule. But, manager Ron Washington said, it's not going to change the Rangers from continuing to try to figure out something. "We can't be afraid of him," Washington said. "He's a bad boy, but we're not going to run from him." --

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