Vladimir Guerrero delivers decisive blow against Angels

Vladimir Guerrero singled home the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth inning to lift Texas to a 3-2 victory over Angels in the first of a four-game set to conclude the regular season.

Guerrero drove in a pair of runs and Nelson Cruz went three for four and scored twice, including the decisive run, for the Rangers, who have won two in a row and five out of seven to take an 11-game lead in the division for the first time in franchise history.

Darren O’Day (6-2) gave up the tying run in the top of the eighth but picked up the win and Neftali Feliz locked down his 39th save with a scoreless ninth.

Rookie pitcher Jordan Walden (0-1), who grew up in the Dallas area, took the loss in his lone inning of work for the Angels, who had sandwiched a four-game slide with three-game winning streaks entering the series.

Rangers starter Cliff Lee yielded a lone unearned run on four hits without a walk while striking out eight over seven innings and turned over a 2-1 lead to Darren O’Day in the eighth.

Peter Bourjos belted a two-out, solo home run to left that knotted the score.

The Rangers responded in their half to produce the winning run.

Cruz doubled to right field with one out and was halfway to third before deciding to go back to second base. He then stole third and came in to score on Guerrero’s single to left.

Julio Borbon singled with one out in the third, advanced to third on an Elvis Andrus hit and scored the game’s first run on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly.

Cruz doubled and scored on a Guerrero two-base hit in the fourth to give Texas a 2-0 lead. The Rangers went on to load the bases with one out but couldn’t add to their lead after Mitch Moreland grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Bobby Abreu’s sacrifice fly in the sixth got the Angels on the board.