Vladimir Guerrero powers Rangers past the Angels

The pitch came in at 79 mph with a bit of a fade, a changeup from the hand of Angels starting pitcher Scott Kazmir. It went out on a line at 98 mph, according to the Angel Stadium speed gun, and whistled over the center-field wall so quickly it left a vapor trail.

Vladimir Guerrero came to Anaheim for the first time as a Texas Ranger this week and claimed he was not motivated by a desire to show the Angels made a mistake by not re-signing him as a free agent last winter.

“All I have to do,” Guerrero said on the eve of a big series against his former team, “is do my job.”

Yeah, right.

Guerrero erased a three-run deficit with one mighty swing of the bat in the fourth inning Wednesday night, sending a laser out of the park for his seventh career grand slam to lead the Rangers to a 6-4 victory over the Angels.

And after greeting reliever Sean O’Sullivan with a double to left-center in the fifth, the 35-year-old Guerrero popped up from his slide into second, clapped his hands violently and pumped his fist toward the Texas dugout.

No, he wasn’t too fired up to play the Angels.

Just for good measure, Guerrero, who also singled in the second, sent a towering home run over the left-center field wall to lead off the eighth, giving him 18 homers and 68 runs batted in on the season.

Guerrero, who has six hits and eight RBIs in the first two games of the series, is tied with Detroit’s Miguel Cabrera for the American League RBI lead. He ranks fifth with a .339 average and is tied for fifth with teammate Josh Hamilton on the AL home run list.

And to think, the Angels probably could have had Guerrero in the heart of their lineup for a seventh season if they were willing to guarantee him a two-year deal.

“From a personal standpoint, what he did for our organization was tremendous, and you miss having him around,” Angels General Manager Tony Reagins said. “From a business standpoint, we made our decision months ago.

“Things don’t always work out [on a contract], and they didn’t in this case. But I’m happy for Vlad and the year he is having.”

The game actually started out well for the Angels, as Erick Aybar opened the first with a home run off Rangers right-hander Omar Beltre, who was making his major league debut.

The Angels scored two more runs in the second, which Mike Napoli opened with a single to center. Kevin Frandsen was hit by a pitch, and both runners advanced on Bobby Wilson’s sacrifice bunt.

The Rangers brought their infield in, but Reggie Willits grounded a two-run single to center to give the Angels a 3-0 lead.

Back came Texas in the fourth. Kazmir hit Elvis Andrus with a pitch to start the inning, Michael Young doubled to left and Ian Kinsler walked to load the bases.

Guerrero then crushed his 17th homer of the season, a liner that center fielder Torii Hunter turned his back on to play off the wall only a second after it left the bat, and the Rangers led, 4-3.

Andrus singled with one out in the fifth, took second on Young’s groundout and scored on Kinsler’s single to center to make it 5-3.

The Angels countered with a run in the bottom of the sixth, as Wilson doubled to left off reliever Dustin Nippert, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Aybar’s groundout.

Howie Kendrick and Bobby Abreu then singled and pulled off a double steal, but Hunter hit a soft broken-bat liner that Nippert snagged to end the inning.

Andrus, the Texas shortstop, made two superb plays in the seventh, ranging far to his left for Hideki Matsui’s grounder, making a back-hand diving stop of Napoli’s one-hop smash, and throwing both runners out.

Frank Francisco threw a scoreless eighth and Neftali Feliz added a scoreless ninth for his league-leading 21st save as the Rangers won for the 17th time in 20 games and pushed their AL West lead over the Angels to 4 œ games.