I've not tried what you're trying to do on a ESXi Virtual Machine under VMware Fusion however I just took a quick read of the vix112_vmrun_command.pdf document and it sure looks like you should be able to use vmrun in that capacity. If I had an ESXi Virtual Machine handy I'd test it but I don't. 
That said, you might want to describe how you have the network configured and post the fully qualified command exactly how your issued it except no need to show the actual password and the exact wording of any error messages. That way others that might be able to help will have some actual analizable facts to review! 