Another Unhappy Ending for Angels : Baseball: DiSarcina’s return, Perez’s homer fail to prevent eighth loss in a row, 8-3 to Texas. They drop into second place in AL West.

What a story line it would have been: Shortstop Gary DiSarcina returns to the Angel lineup after a seven-week absence, long-lost Angel Eduardo Perez hits a stunning, game-tying home run in the seventh inning, and the Angels dramatically, rousingly . . . lose their eighth in a row.

So much for happy endings.

The Texas Rangers sent the Angel script through the shredder, pounding out five runs in the bottom of the seventh Friday night for an 8-3 victory before a paid crowd of 25,081 in The Ballpark at Arlington.

The Angels, who had an 11-game lead in the American League West on Aug. 9, have lost 26 of their last 34 games to fall out of first place for the first time since July 1.

The Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics, 10-7, later Friday night, and now lead the division by one game.

The Angels dropped into a tie atop the wild-card standings with the New York Yankees, who were rained out Friday night.

The Angels (72-64) are in the midst of one of baseball’s greatest collapses, and there is such confusion and frustration in the clubhouse that Manager Marcel Lachemann, trying his hand at reverse psychology, hopes to use their decline to his advantage.

“Everyone’s writing us off, but we have an opportunity now to be a great comeback team, and that’s not an opportunity that comes around too often,” said Lachemann, who held a half-hour, closed-door team meeting after the loss.

“A lot of people are comparing us to the 1978 Red Sox, but if we can do what they did, I’d be happy. They blew a [13 1/2-game] lead, got down by three or four games and fought back to tie [the Yankees].”

After Angel starter Mark Langston gave up three second-inning runs, on consecutive doubles by Mickey Tettleton, Ivan Rodriguez and Candy Maldonado, and a single by Craig Worthington, the Angels fought back to tie Friday night.

Jim Edmonds hit a bases-empty home run in the third--it was only his fifth run batted in in the last 22 games--and after Damion Easley singled to open the seventh, Lachemann sent Perez to pinch hit for catcher Andy Allanson.

Perez, who started the season as the Angels’ third baseman, was demoted to triple-A Vancouver in May and has asked the front office to trade him this winter, lined a Kenny Rogers pitched into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer and a 3-3 tie.

This, the Angels thought, would be the big hit, the unexpected lift, they needed to snap out of their doldrums.

Then came the bottom of the seventh. Texas shortstop Benji Gil, hitless in his previous 15 at-bats and batting .101 against left-handers this season, singled to left and advanced on catcher Jorge Fabregas’ passed ball.

Otis Nixon fisted an inside pitch into center field for an RBI single and took second on Edmonds’ throw home. Langston then walked Mark McLemore and Will Clark, and up came cleanup batter Juan Gonzalez, who began the game with 25 homers and 72 RBIs in 81 games this season.

Lachemann summoned right-hander Mike James for this unenviable assignment, and Gonzalez pounded his first offering off the center-field wall for a three-run double and a 7-3 lead. Gonzalez later scored on Rodriguez’s groundout to make it 8-3.

Rogers (15-7) closed out the win, throwing a complete-game seven-hitter to improve to 3-0 this season and 7-1 in his career against the Angels. The left-hander threw 147 pitches, the same number he needed to beat the Angels, 6-4, on Aug. 4. Langston (15-6) was tagged for nine hits and seven runs in six innings.

“We didn’t get a win, so there’s really not much to celebrate,” Perez said. “This time of season, you can’t be thinking on the personal level. We need to get a win, any which way.”

Indeed, the Angels’ magic number is one.

“We’ve got to win one game before we can win two,” third baseman Tony Phillips said.

* COMMENTARY

Shortstop Gary DiSarcina returns to the starting lineup, but the Angels are still waiting for someone to come to their rescue. Mike Penner’s commentary, C7

* ALONE IN FIRST

The Seattle Mariners first overcame a 6-0 deficit and then came from behind again to defeat to the Oakland A’s, 10-7, and take a one-game lead atop the AL West. C7