Gwynn May Miss a Month : Reinjured Thumb Is Put in a Cast Just Before Game

If you thought the Padres’ inability to get a base hit has stuck out like a sore thumb . . . you’re going to love this one.

Tony Gwynn has a sore thumb, the right thumb. He hurt it when he fell running from first to second base here Saturday.

It was so sore, it was X-rayed Sunday, and ligaments on the outside of the thumb were found sprained, and the thumb was placed into a cast. It must stay in that cast for two weeks. Gwynn has been placed on the disabled list and could be out for a month.

“Right now,” Manager Larry Bowa said, “it’s not a pretty sight.”

The Padres are currently hitting .228, the second-worst average in the National League. In the last eight games, seven of them losses, they have hit .207.

And now this, losing last year’s major-league hitting leader who was hitting .316 in his last 20 games and had improved his average to .275.

Can it get any worse, for Gwynn or his team or what’s left of any talk of a good 1988 start?

“I’m not going to answer that question anymore,” Gwynn said. “It scares me.”

As he spoke, after Sunday’s 6-2 loss to Pittsburgh, he was attempting to work around his cast and button his yellow dress shirt. He reached the collar and realized he had missed a button.

He sighed, pulled off the shirt over his head, laid it on his lap, buttoned it from the outside, and slipped it back over his head.

“First the finger surgery, then the sprained knee, now the thumb--what a year,” moaned Gwynn, who had recovered quickly from those earlier injuries. He is being placed on the disabled list for the first time since 1983. “You know, I even hurt my neck when I fell. Can you imagine that? Hurting your neck ?”

At least San Diego fans will get one wish. They can finally welcome back Shane Mack, who will be recalled from triple-A Las Vegas.

Mack, who hit .239 in 105 Padre games last season, was the final cut this spring. Mack, who hit in each of his first 27 games for the Las Vegas Stars this season, had his hitting streak stopped Sunday afternoon in Vancouver, B.C. He is hitting .379. He would likely have been recalled this weekend anyway, as Shawn Abner’s one-week trial as the everyday center fielder has resulted in one single in 12 at-bats. This will just hasten his return, which should begin with a start in center field tonight in St. Louis. Abner would move to right.

That is, if Mack ever gets there. Things have been going so bad for the Padres, they couldn’t even properly recall him. By the end of the first inning of Sunday’s game, about 2 p.m. EDT, Gwynn had returned from the hospital in a cast. He was obviously going on the disabled list, and Mack was obviously going to be recalled.

Except, a club official could not be found to authorize it.

General Manager Jack McKeon was in Baton Rouge, La., scouting possible No. 1 free agent draft pick Greg Olsen of Auburn, and could not be reached. Club President Chub Feeney was somewhere in New York City on league business and could not be located.

McKeon had previously scheduled a meeting with Bowa in St. Louis Sunday night, and the decision was finally made there.

But in the meantime Sunday, Mack was playing an afternoon game against Vancouver, risking injury (he was hit twice by pitches) and the chance that he might not get a flight this morning that could put him in St. Louis in time for the 5:35 CDT start.

“The way things are going,” Bowa said, “Mack probably will get hurt before he gets here.”

A few lockers down from Gwynn, another injured teammate looked down and frowned.

“This,” John Kruk said, “is just what we needed.”

Kruk, who was the team’s second-leading hitter behind Gwynn, is out with a strained rotator cuff in his right shoulder. He missed the entire three-game Pittsburgh series, and will not likely return until the middle of this week. He is being replaced by Carmelo Martinez, who went 0-for-4 Sunday to drop his average to .130.

But at least it appears Kruk will be back soon. Gwynn, who made good on his promise to return in a couple of weeks from finger surgery on his left hand this spring, isn’t making any promises now. For one thing, the right hand is the hand that guides his bat, making it more crucial. For another thing, a fiberglass cast is involved here, unlike the soft bandage that covered his injured finger and came off within a couple of days.

“After I get the cast off, I have to rehab, so I don’t know on this one,” Gwynn said. “I’m kind of in the dark.”

At first, he didn’t think it was this bad. It happened in eighth inning of Saturday’s 3-2 victory, after his single had driven in the winning run. Because pitcher Jim Gott had been upset by two straight balks, Gwynn decided it would be a good time to steal second.

While running with his head down, he heard batter Chris Brown make contact. He looked up to see a bouncer heading his way. He stopped suddenly to dodge the ball, and then, off-balance, he fell on his right side. As the ball rolled into right field, Gwynn stumbled into the second-base bag, and then fell again and rolled around in pain.

The pain eventually subsided and Gwynn stayed in the game with what he thought was a mild sprain. But late Saturday night in his hotel room, Gwynn’s thumb began swelling. He filled a bucket with ice and soaked it and it swelled some more. By the time he arrived at the park Sunday, it was swollen enough so that trainer Dick Dent ordered X-rays and further examination.

“While we were driving to the hospital, the doctor was talking about surgery, and I was going, ‘What?’ ” Gwynn said. “So it’s not as bad as it could be. I’ll just have to stay positive and hope I’ll get through this like I’ve gotten through everything else.”

Easy for him to say. For the Padres, it could be a different story.