Chili Has a Grand Time, 4-0 : Angels: Davis’ 425-foot slam is all the offense Finley needs as he pitches a three-hitter.

The Minnesota Twins tried to be diplomatic about the contract talks during the winter, but secretly, the front-office and coaching staff shared the same sentiments.

They believed Chili Davis was finished, and had no legitimate interest in retaining him as a free agent.

Guess who came home to dinner Saturday night, bringing along a housewarming gift that made his former employers look awfully silly in the Angels’ 4-0 victory over the Twins.

Davis unleashed a 425-foot grand slam into the auxiliary bleachers with two out in the sixth inning, letting folks know that life is just fine on the West Coast.

It was all the offense that Angel starter Chuck Finley (9-5) needed, pitching a three-hit shutout and allowing only one runner to second base.

“That’s as good as I’ve seen Chuck Finley pitch,” Angel Manager Buck Rodgers said.

Said Twin Manager Tom Kelly: “We could have played three or four more innings, and we still wouldn’t have scored off the guy.”

Yet the man everyone was talking about this night was no other than Charles Theodore Davis. The Angels made the grave mistake of giving up on him three years ago, only for the Twins to commit the same sin last winter.

Davis, who hit only 12 homers with 66 RBIs last season, desperately wanted to stay with the Twins. It was a first-class organization, and after winning one World Series with them in 1991, he desperately wanted to stay around for another.

The Twins ignored the plea, figuring they had seen the last of Davis’ greatness.

They were wrong.

Davis’ grand slam was his ninth homer of the season, all with runners on base, providing him with a team-high 53 RBIs this season. It not only is 10 RBIs more than any Twin player, but the only Angel to finish with more RBIs last season was Junior Felix with 72.

“I thought it was just a business decision when I left here,” Davis said, “but I’m finding out more and more why I wasn’t offered a chance to come back.

“Let’s just say I had a great time in the Twins’ organization, we won a World Series championship together and went our separate ways. I don’t know how they’re feeling right now, but I’m having a pretty damn good time.”

Said Angel Manager Buck Rodgers: “We all make mistakes.”

The Twins are reminded daily of their blunder. While dumping Davis with no remorse, they were patting themselves on the back when they lured Dave Winfield out of Toronto.

While the Angels are 37-35 and sitting in a second-place tie with Kansas City, the Twins are 30-40 and thinking about next year.

And Winfield? Davis drove in as many runs with one swing Saturday as Winfield has accumulated in his last 22 games, producing 31 RBIs for the season.

“I’m not going to say the Twins made a mistake, or saying I was trying harder to beat them because of what happened,” said Davis, hitting .315 with runners in scoring position this season. “But I won’t lie and say that homer wasn’t a great feeling either.”

Davis’ heroics occurred at a time when the Angels weren’t sure they would even get a hit, let alone score against starter Willie Banks. The Angels didn’t get their first hit until Gary DiSarcina’s single with one out in the sixth. The crowd of 35,538 at the Metrodome gave Banks a rousing ovation for the no-hit bid, but it was as if DiSarcina’s hit snapped Banks (5-4) into reality.

He walked Luis Polonia on four pitches, induced a fly ball from Chad Curtis, and then loaded the bases by walking Tim Salmon on five pitches. Davis, popular during his two-year stint with the Twins, received a polite applause from the crowd when he stepped to the plate.

Davis, Banks’ roommate in Minnesota, told himself to keep the ball away from center fielder Kirby Puckett. He had already been robbed twice by nice running catches by Puckett and vowed it wouldn’t happen again.

So he hit Banks’ first pitch over the center-field fence. It was the third grand slam of Davis’ career, and the first by an Angel player against the Twins since Aug. 11, 1982, when Don Baylor homered off Ron Davis.

“He kept it away from him all right,” Rodgers said. “When he hit it, we were saying, ‘Catch that, Kirby.’ ”

Said Puckett: “When he hit that one, I said, ‘Oh, man, Chili’s back in town.’ We miss him.”