Davis Honored, Sent Packing : Baseball: Mariners hit four homers and pound Valera and Crim in 13-4 victory over the Angels. First baseman’s contract is sold to a team in Japan.

The Angels will announce today they have sold Alvin Davis’ contract to a team in Japan.

Davis is lucky. He won’t have to watch another opponent assault the Angels’ pitching for double-digit totals, as the Mariners did Thursday night in a 13-4 romp before 14,219 at the Kingdome.

Davis, who was honored by the Mariners on Thursday to commemorate his eight fine seasons in Seattle, exited with dignity, collecting two hits in four at-bats. His teammates left in defeat, after Julio Valera (4-6) lost the control that enabled him to shut out the Oakland Athletics on four hits in his previous start, last Saturday.

Valera lasted 1 2/3 innings, giving up four walks and seven runs. That included a home run by Ken Griffey Jr., who was activated off the disabled list two hours before the game. Griffey’s 13th homer matched the run the Angels had scored in the first off Rich DeLucia (3-4).

“DeLucia,” one Angel player said scornfully, thinking of the 7.49 earned-run average the right-hander took into Thursday’s game. “He’s not that good. Are we that bad?”

They looked that bad Thursday after reliever Chuck Crim yielded homers to Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez and Dave Valle in 2 1/3 innings. In two days, the Angels have been outscored, 24-4, by the Twins and Mariners. In the first four games of their seven-game trip, the count is 31-7, leaving them a season-high 13 games out of first place in the AL West.

“When you don’t hit or don’t pitch well, screaming and yelling doesn’t do any good,” interim Manager John Wathan said in explaining his calm demeanor after the Angels’ 10th road loss in their last 11 games. “Most everybody is out there busting his butt. Screaming at the whole team is not going to help when you simply don’t get the hitting or pitching.”

Effective relief pitching has been a glaring weakness. Crim, signed before the season to a two-year contract at $1.2 million per year, has given up 13 hits and 13 runs in his last three appearances, a span of 3 1/3 innings over three games. In that stretch, his earned-run average is 35.10; overall, it’s 6.98.

Scott Bailes, who also has struggled, gave up one run in one inning Thursday to raise his ERA to 8.24.

“If I went out there and tried to do this, I couldn’t,” said Crim, who has been involved in both seven-run innings against the Angels this season. The first was on April 22, when the A’s scored seven runs in the fifth inning of a 10-4 rout at Anaheim Stadium.

“I could throw batting practice and get more outs that I did tonight,” he said. “I can’t say I got hurt by ground balls through holes. But I’d question myself if I thought my stuff was that bad, but I really don’t think that’s the case. It stinks coming here and pitching like this. It’s really frustrating.”

Davis, who choked back tears during pregame speeches lauding his accomplishments while with the Mariners, was equally sentimental afterward. “This night was big for me,” he said. “It means a lot that an organization would put on something like this. It felt good to be back here where I played so many games and had so much success.”

He never matched that success with the Angels. Signed for $800,000 as a free agent last winter as insurance against Lee Stevens’ sore wrist, Davis struggled. He peaked at .311 on June 5 but was one for 28 entering Thursday’s game. He finishes at .250, with 16 RBIs and no home runs in 40 games.

He leaves behind a team that has lost its last four games, has not hit a home run in its last eight road games and is foundering.

“They hit the ball hard, they hit the ball soft, they got infield hits, they got home runs, they got walks,” said Rene Gonzales, who made his third consecutive start at third base.

“How do we go from playing Oakland like we did (winning two of three) to this? We’ve been getting away from giving ourselves a chance to win. We can’t play catch up by six runs. It’s just too tough for us.”