Two Good Ends to Bad Beginnings : Angels: They beat Tigers, 5-4, in 10 innings but go into All-Star break with their worst record since 1976.

As rain began to fall by the bucketful on Tiger Stadium late Sunday afternoon, Gary DiSarcina considered the gloomy scene an appropriate backdrop for the end of the Angels’ dismal half-season.

“I was standing out there in that last inning thinking, ‘It can’t get much worse than this,’ ” DiSarcina said.

If Junior Felix hadn’t caught Dan Gladden’s sinking liner to center field with runners on first and third bases to preserve a 5-4 victory, it could have been their worst road trip of the season. But Felix’s 10th-inning catch enabled them to go into the All-Star break with a three-game winning streak, their longest since they won four games June 11-14.

“We didn’t do a good job pitching. We didn’t do a good job executing. I don’t know that we deserved to win it,” interim manager John Wathan said, referring to the club-record 13 walks--two intentional--issued by his pitchers and several failed sacrifice attempts in the late innings.

“And what did they leave, 16 left on base?” he added, shaking his head. “Amazing. It’s a good sign. Maybe things are turning a little bit.”

If their luck is turning, it can only be for the better. After three months marked by offensive failures, pitching struggles and the bus accident that deprived them of Manager Buck Rodgers, the Angels had begun to question what they had done to warrant such misery. Although 52 losses is the most they have had at the All-Star break since they were 35-52 in 1976, finishing their 10-game trip with three consecutive victories over the Tigers gave them reason to look forward to the second half of the season, although they will begin it in last place in the AL West.

“This definitely is going to boost the confidence of this ballclub,” said Steve Frey, who got out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning and gave up a walk and a hit in the 10th before Felix’s catch. “This is a tough park to win in, and these wins are definitely a pick-me-up going into the second half.”

Frey picked up his third victory in four decisions after Gary Gaetti’s 10th-inning single against Mike Henneman (0-5) scored Felix. The Tigers walked Ken Oberkfell to get to Gaetti, who lined Henneman’s first pitch sharply to left.

“I smashed it,” Gaetti said as he dashed to catch a plane to his vacation home in Raleigh, N.C. “It felt good, too.”

Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson didn’t feel too bad after the loss, all things considered.

“As rough as the Angels have been having it, they deserved to have a few breaks go their way,” he said. “I don’t think they’ve had a hell of a lot of breaks lately, or they wouldn’t have been losing as many as they have. It wasn’t that we got bad breaks. We got as many breaks as they did.”

They also got a 410-foot homer from Cecil Fielder during the first inning with a runner on, which erased the 1-0 lead the Angels had taken on Luis Sojo’s homer.

Lee Stevens’ sixth homer of the season, a drive to left-center field against Kevin Ritz, made the score 2-2, but that lasted only until the fourth inning.

Angel starter Chuck Finley, who threw only 46 strikes among his 100 pitches over 6 1/3 innings, fell behind, 3-2, on a double by Skeeter Barnes and Phil Clark’s run-scoring single.

Finley walked a season-high seven.

The Angels took the lead during the sixth inning, when third baseman Barnes’ wild throw on a grounder put Rene Gonzales on second and Oberkfell singled him home. Oberkfell scored when Fielder dropped a routine throw on Mike Fitzgerald’s grounder to short.

Before the Angels left for vacation, Wathan joked about making other plans.

“We’re going to find a pickup game tomorrow. We’re on a roll, so we’re going to find a game in Orange County,” he said.