Davis’ Bad Back Draws Little Sympathy

You know your back is sore when Angel pitcher Scott Sanderson, who has had two surgeries to repair herniated disks, walks up to you in the clubhouse and says, “So, what you’re trying to tell me is my back is better than yours?”

Angel designated hitter Chili Davis, suffering from back spasms and held out of the starting lineup against the Seattle Mariners, was the recipient of that question Monday night.

Davis apparently hurt himself legging out a double in Sunday’s game at Detroit. He woke up with stiffness in his lower back Monday morning and was deemed unfit to start Monday night despite several hours of treatment.

“I guess it was a combination of the [artificial] turf in Toronto, the cold weather in Detroit and some bad hotel beds,” said Davis, who isn’t sure how long he’ll be sidelined.

“I’ve had a bad back before, but the pain usually goes away with stretching and exercises. But hopefully the trainers can do some more things with it [Monday night], so I can be ready to play [tonight].”

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Davis actually wants to bat tonight against Mariner ace Randy Johnson, who threw a three-hitter with 12 strikeouts in Seattle’s 9-1 victory over the Angels in the one-game playoff to determine the division champion last October.

Jim Edmonds is a bit hesitant, though. Asked how he would approach the 6-foot-10 left-hander, he said: “Ask for the day off . . . no, he’s just another guy you have to face who’s not easy.”

Second baseman Randy Velarde has a .500 career average (18 for 36) and Rex Hudler, who will likely start in the outfield tonight, is hitting .400 (6 for 15) against Johnson.

But Johnson has had few problems with Garret Anderson (.000), Tim Salmon (.148, 16 strikeouts), Edmonds (.200), J.T. Snow (.222), Davis (.224) and Gary DiSarcina (.242).

“It’s not a given he’ll just go out and beat us,” Snow said. “If that was the case, we’d just stay at the hotel, have dinner somewhere and not even come to the park.”

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An examination of triple-A catcher Todd Greene’s injured wrist Monday confirmed a broken hook of the hamate bone. Greene, Baseball Weekly’s minor league player of the year in 1995, will undergo surgery today and will be out for about six weeks. . . . Triple-A outfielder Darin Erstad, the No. 1 pick in the 1995 draft, was batting .387 after nine games for Vancouver. Pitcher Phil Leftwich is 2-0 with a 1.93 earned run average in two starts.