Pitches don’t intimidate Guerrero

Vicente Padilla can come inside on Vladimir Guerrero all he wants, but the Texas right-hander will not get inside the Angels slugger’s head.

Padilla drilled Guerrero on the left arm and threw two pitches at Guerrero’s head Aug. 15 in Texas, and he backed Guerrero off the plate on his first pitch to him Tuesday night.

Guerrero’s response? He crushed a three-run home run off Padilla in that August game, had three hits, including a home run, off Padilla on Tuesday night and is now 14 for 34 with three homers against Padilla.

“I know people want to pitch me inside, and even though he has thrown to me like that in the National League, it doesn’t bother me,” Guerrero said through an interpreter. “I don’t think it’s a personal thing. I have to continue to get my swings no matter how far inside he comes.”

Can’t a 94-mph fastball toward your head be a little unsettling, though?

“The way I block it out is ... usually, I never see two pitches in a row near my head,” said Guerrero, whose .427 average against Texas is the highest by any active player against any team. “A lot of times it’s a purpose pitch to get me away from the outer half, and the next pitch is something to hit.”

When Padilla pitched in Philadelphia from 2000 to 2003 and Guerrero played for Montreal, Padilla came inside hard and often, so Guerrero is used to such tactics.

“I don’t get intimidated at all,” said Guerrero, who foiled a Texas shift by shooting an RBI single through a vacated second-base hole in the first inning of Wednesday’s 5-3 victory.

“If anything, I know I have to bear down a little bit more because I don’t want that one pitch inside taking away from contact with a pitch I should hit. But overall, I pretend like it never happened and go up there and hack.”

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Closer Francisco Rodriguez, who got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam by retiring Brad Wilkerson on a sacrifice fly and striking out Nelson Cruz with a 96-mph fastball to save Wednesday’s game, has shed his signature goggles in favor of contact lenses this season.

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Designated hitter Shea Hillenbrand tweaked his right groin while rounding third in the seventh inning Tuesday night and was held out of Wednesday’s game. Hillenbrand is not expected to be placed on the disabled list, “but I’ve never done anything to my groin before, so I have no clue how long I’ll be out,” he said.

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The Angels wore their new alternative tops Tuesday night, a bright red jersey with bright red numbers. “Some of us looked like a firetruck in them,” Manager Mike Scioscia said, “but they’re nice.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com