VLAD SHOWS IT'S STILL HIS SHOW AMID NEW FACES, GUERRERO POWERS ANGELS IN WIN ANGELS 3, TEXAS 2.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

ANAHEIM - After a winter spent flip-flopping shortstops, shipping out petulant sluggers and tweaking the pitching staff, the Angels reconvened for the 2005 season Tuesday night at Angel Stadium and discovered virtually nothing changed.

This is Vladimir Guerrero's team, and no amount of extreme makeovers will change that anytime soon.

Guerrero's 2004 MVP season seemed to carry over with all the ease of a CD skipping to the next track, as he homered on the third pitch he saw from Ryan Drese and smacked a go-ahead RBI double off him five innings later, boosting Bartolo Colon and the Angels to a 3-2 victory over the Texas Rangers.

Francisco Rodriguez earned his first save as the club's full-time closer with a 10-pitch, eight-slider scoreless inning, and Bengie Molina drove in a key insurance run with an RBI single. But this was Guerrero's show.

``It's why he was the MVP last year, and I wouldn't be surprised if he was the MVP this year,'' Molina said. ``I'm more surprised that pitchers who face him try to get him out. If I faced him, I think I'd try to walk him every time, like Barry Bonds.''

Colon and Guerrero tormented the Rangers last season, Colon going 6-0 with a 2.14 ERA and Guerrero kick-starting his last-week MVP bid with a 12-for-17, five-homer series against them.

A flip of the calendar did little to change those trends.

Colon, evoking memories of his late-season renaissance, was inefficient but effective. He held the potent Rangers to just one run in 6 2/3 innings, shaking off a slow start to hang on long enough for Guerrero to get him a win and the crowd to salute him with a standing ovation.

Guerrero looked at home immediately.

Drese missed with two balls and then got an 88 mph fastball up in the zone. Guerrero guided it into the right-field bleachers for a 1-0 lead three batters into the game.

After Garret Anderson followed Guerrero's homer with a single, Drese retired the next 14 Angels before Jeff DaVanon hit a one-out single in the sixth.

That brought up Guerrero. Drese glanced in the dugout. There were no orders to walk him.

Drese made another mistake up in the strike zone, and Guerrero nearly drilled his second homer of the night. Instead, it split the gap in left-center field, and DaVanon scurried home with the go-ahead run.

For the second time Tuesday night, chants of ``MVP!'' reverberated through the stadium.

``That was last year,'' Guerrero, through an interpreter, said of winning the plaque he'll receive in a pregame ceremony tonight. ``This is a new year. I'm going to be the same I was in the past and do what I'm supposed to do every year.''

``We're more than Vlad,'' insisted manager Mike Scioscia. ``But he's going to be there.''

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) The Angels' Vladimir Guerrero points to the sky as he crosses home plate after his first-inning home run Tuesday.

(2) Starting pitcher Bartolo Colon allowed only one run on six hits in 6 2/3 innings against Texas in the Angels' 3-2 victory Tuesday night.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

Box:

(1) ANGELS vs. TEXAS

- Gabe Lacques

(2) HOW THE RUNS SCORED

(3) GAME RECAP