Strawberry Hurting, Hopes to Avoid DL : Dodgers: Injury diagnosed as a mild shoulder separation. Decision due today.

Early Thursday morning, still wearing his Dodger uniform, Darryl Strawberry walked slowly from his car into a deserted Dodger clubhouse.

He had just returned from Centinela Hospital Medical Center, where doctors had diagnosed the injury to his left shoulder as a mild separation.

His arm was in a sling, his eyes were watery from the pain, but there was one thing he wanted to make clear.

“I am not going on any disabled list,” Strawberry said. “I am just starting to swing the bat well. No way do I want to go on the disabled list.”

He will have a chance to say that again to club officials today, when the Dodgers decide whether to put their highest-paid player on the 15-day disabled list during their hottest streak of the season.

The good news for the Dodgers and Strawberry is that the shoulder separation, which occurred when he ran into the right-field wall in the seventh inning Wednesday while catching a fly ball hit by the Expos’ Marquis Grissom, is not serious enough to have put him on the disabled list immediately.

The X-rays showed no fractures, and the separation was listed as Grade 1, meaning it could actually be no worse than a bad bruise.

The not-so-good news, however, is that he might still be put on the disabled list today if the swelling and pain have not subsided.

“We aren’t saying anything because we do not know anything,” said Fred Claire, Dodger vice president. “You have to give something like this 24-48 hours, to see if his range of motion has improved and his soreness is going away.”

Although Claire said he had no guidelines for deciding whether Strawberry should be disabled, he said: “If they say he cannot come back for seven to 10 days, then maybe that would put us over the line and we would have to disable him. But I don’t think anybody knows.”

Before he was hurt, Strawberry had hit safely in seven of eight games, going seven for 25 (.280) during that time with a home run and four runs batted in.

He was also gathering inspiration for this weekend’s three-game series at Dodger Stadium against his former teammates, the Mets, although now it is doubtful he will play against them.

Early Thursday, Strawberry described the play, which occurred after he had dropped a first-inning fly ball hit by Ivan Calderon, turning it into a triple.

“I was going 100% when I hit the wall,” Strawberry said. “I didn’t let up at all. I hit it full on.”

He caught the ball, then bent over in pain but did not leave the game immediately. He was removed after the shoulder stiffened while the Dodgers were batting in the seventh.

Later, the Dodgers defeated the Expos, 4-3, for their eighth victory in 11 games.

Afterward, a couple of Dodger outfielders wondered why the Dodger Stadium walls were not padded, as are most others in the league.

“I don’t know if this is the only outfield wall in the league that is not padded, but it is one of the few,” Stan Javier said. “We talk about it, and we wonder. We have no idea why they do not pad it.”

Strawberry was not openly critical, but said: “I know that most of the other stadiums have padding, and I think this is why they have padding, because of shoulder injuries.”

Peter O’Malley, Dodger owner, said the walls were examined and approved Thursday afternoon.

“The walls have the same amount of give in them as they had in 1962,” O’Malley said. “We have a spring in the wood, and that causes the give.

“We have continually examined and reviewed the walls, and they are no different now than they ever were.”

When asked if a padded wall would be preferable, O’Malley said, “I don’t know what kind of padding you mean, how thick you are talking about. I do know that we just do not have hard walls. They have much resiliency.”

Even though Strawberry ranks fourth on the team with two home runs in 109 at-bats, and has only 11 runs batted in, the Dodgers say they can hardly afford to lose him.

“No matter how he is doing, we have to have Darryl, because of what he can do,” Brett Butler said.