More of Same in Angels’ loss : Baseball: Mariners hit four homers and pound Valera and Crim in 13-4 victory. Davis sold to a team in Japan.

The Angels’ second successive game of surrendering runs in double-digits was well under way Thursday before a team official announced the scheduling of a news conference today at 11 a.m.

There was no news in Angels’ 13-4 loss to the Mariners before 14,219--merely more of the same bad middle relief pitching and meager offensive production.

It was learned that the Angels will announce today that they are selling first baseman Alvin Davis, whom they signed as a free gent for $800,000 in the off-season, to a Japanese team. Davis had two hits and drove in a run Thursday and hit .250 in 40 games, with no homers and 16 RBI. Ironically, he was honored as “Mr. Mariner” in pregame ceremonies for the eight seasons he played for Seattle.

The Angels have been outscored, 31-7, in losing the first four games of their seven-game trip to Minnesota and Seattle; in the last two games, the tally is 24-4. Julio Valera (4-6) had an uncharacteristically bad outing Thursday, giving up seven runs in 1 2/3 innings including a first-inning home run by Ken Griffey Jr.

Edgar Martinez, Tino Martinez and Dave Valle homered off Chuck Crim, who has given up 13 hits and 13 runs in his last three relief appearances, an earned-run average of 35.10 in that span. The Mariners had lost their previous five games.

The loss left the Angels a season-high 13 games out of first place.

Hardly able to waste the few hits they get, the Angels managed to collect two--and two walks--in the first inning and load the bases twice. But they scored only once.

The Mariners were equally wasteful in the bottom of the first, when they collected three hits but also scored only once.

Luis Polonia and Junior Felix sandwiched singles to right field around a Chad Curtis strikeout to put runners on first and second. Davis walked to load the bases, bringing up Rene Gonzales. The Angels’ most consistent hitter over the last 15 games with a .327 batting average, Gonzales hit a fielder’s choice grounder to score Polonia.

Gary Gaetti walked to load the bases again, but Luis Sojo was out on a tapper back to the mound.

Griffey, just activated from the disabled list, showed he hadn’t lost his hitting stroke while nursing a sprained wrist. He walloped Valera’s 0-and-1 pitch high into the right-field seats for his 13th homer of the season and the 2,000th for the Mariner franchise.

Kevin Mitchell followed with a double and Tino Martinez with a single, but Curtis’ strong throw from right field got Mitchell at the plate.

Valera, who pitched a four-hit shutout against the Oakland Athletics in his last outing, had none of that sharpness Thursday. His control wobbly and his fastball resembling a batting-practice offering, Valera was chased after 1 2/3 innings, the shortest start by an Angel pitcher this season. Middle reliever Chuck Crim failed, too, and the Mariners scored a season-high seven runs in the second inning to take an 8-1 lead.

Two walks and a double by Harold Reynolds produced the first Seattle run of the inning, and a walk and a wild pitch set up the second. A walk to Griffey loaded the bases for Mitchell, who scored Reynolds and Edgar Martinez with a single to right.

Crim replaced Valera, but the Mariners’ barrage barely paused. Tino Martinez slammed Crim’s first pitch to right field for his seventh homer of the season, emphatically ending a 2-for-20 slump.

DeLucia gave the Angels ample opportunity to get back into the game. An error, a single by Davis and a walk loaded the bases in the third inning, but Sojo grounded into an inning-ending double play. Gary DiSarcina led off the fourth with a double and was out trying to stretch it to a triple, a gaffe that was even more glaring when Polonia and Curtis followed with singles. A passed ball scored Polonia and moved Curtis to third base, but Felix grounded out.

The Mariners added a run in the fourth inning and four more in the fifth, pulling out to a 13-2 lead.

Edgar Martinez blasted a 2-and-2 pitch to left field in the fourth inning for his 11th homer of the season, and Dave Valle hit a towering homer to left with Buhner on first base in the fifth. A single by Blowers ended Crim’s outing, as interim Manager John Wathan summoned Scott Bailes.

That didn’t help much. Omar Vizquel singled to center--giving every Mariner who batted at least one hit in the game--Edgar Martinez walked and Griffey’s ground out scored Blowers. An intentional walk to Mitchell backfired, too, when Tino Martinez hit a bouncer off the end of his bat, scoring Vizquel.