2 Howell Homers Wasted : Baseball: Chris Gwynn drives home winning run in 10th inning as Dodgers down Padres, 3-1.

The Padres keep telling themselves they won’t look back and kick themselves for squandered victories this season. They say there’s too much at stake to torment themselves with the past.

If they indeed wind up sitting at home this fall, watching the Dodgers in the playoffs, you can be assured they’ll be thinking about the game they blew Monday night.

Just four outs away from a momentous victory, the Padres instead wound up losing, 3-2, in 10 innings in front of a crowd of 31,360 at Dodger Stadium.

In a matter of three hours, they wasted Dennis Rasmussen’s brilliant pitching performance in which he yielded only four hits in seven innings. They wasted third baseman Jack Howell’s two home runs, equaling a career-high. And most important, they wasted a chance to pull within 6 1/2 games of the Dodgers, and now find themselves perilously close to being out of the National League West race with an 8 1/2-game deficit.

“You don’t want to get to the point when you’re saying, ‘If we had done this, or if we had done that,’ ” Padre right fielder Tony Gwynn said. “But we’re running out of games right now.”

It was Gwynn’s younger brother, Chris, who caused the Padres’ grief. Mitch Webster led off the 10th with a double, Lenny Harris was intentionally walked and Mike Sharperson sacrificed, setting the stage for Chris Gwynn.

Gwynn patiently waited for Padre reliever Larry Andersen to give him the pitch of his choosing, and then slashed a fly ball to left field. Jerald Clark caught the ball while running to the gap, but he had no chance to throw out Webster.

The Padres, however, feel it was a game that never should have gotten to extra innings. Rasmussen had shut down the Dodgers throughout the night, but after yielding a leadoff walk to Webster in the eighth inning, Padre Manager Greg Riddoch summoned Craig Lefferts. The move made perfect sense. After all, Lefferts had given the Dodgers fits throughout his career, owning a 9-1 record with a 1.98 ERA and seven saves.

This time, after he yielded a sacrifice bunt to Brett Butler and inducing a ground out from Sharperson, Kal Daniels got a run-scoring single to tie the game. And Darryl Strawberry followed with another single to center which Darrin Jackson tried to short-hop. The ball squirted away and Daniels came around to score for a 2-1 Dodger lead.

Howell, however, came right back to tie the game by hitting his second home run of the night over the right-center-field wall. It was the third time in his career that he hit two homers in a game, and the first in Southern California.

“To me, it felt just like spring training again,” said Howell, who played in Dodger Stadium in the annual Freeway Series each spring while with the Angels. “The only difference was that I was driving from home instead of the hotel.”

The defeat now leaves Padre General Manager Joe McIlvaine in a quandary. Do the Padres mortgage part of their future, acquire some help, and go full-bore for the National League West title?

Or do the Padres, who are three games under .500, simply stay pat and build for the future, believing they realistically can’t win the race?

“A lot’s going to depend on this trip, an awful lot,” McIlvaine said Monday afternoon. “If a guy’s available and we’re only three or four games back, it’s a different story.

“But if we go into Los Angeles and get swept by the Dodgers, everything looks a whole lot different, too.”

It’s still a bit too early to make any judgements, but the way Rasmussen pitched Monday, it could provide an interesting dilemma. He allowed only four hits and six baserunners and never allowed more than one baserunner in an inning.

Rasmussen proved he can indeed pitch well against someone other than the Houston Astros. Rasmussen entered the game with a 2-0 record and 0.83 ERA against the Astros this season, and was 2-10 with a 4.04 ERA against everyone else.

This time, he was dazzling, and guess who was sitting in the stands, intently watching Rasmussen’s every pitch in the game?

That same man has returned. Wayne Britton, one of the Boston Red Sox’s top scouts, was in attendance to determine if the Red Sox might want Rasmussen after all.

If Rasmussen’s performance Monday was any indication, you may expect Red Sox General Manager Lou Gorman to soon be telephoning McIlvaine.

The Red Sox and Padres have had previous discussions this year about Rasmussen, but the Red Sox’s interest waned during Rasmussen’s nine-game losing streak. Besides, the Red Sox were falling out of the race and saw no need for giving up a player for Rasmussen.

Yet, today, the Red Sox find themselves trailing by only 5 1/2 games in the American League East and their interest in Rasmussen has been piqued.

The Padres, according to sources, dearly want third baseman Scott Cooper in return for Rasmussen. Cooper, who is playing for triple-A Pawtuckett, is considered one of the best third base prospects in baseball.

But do the Padres want to trade Rasmussen and possibly sacrifice their chances at winning the division?

It’s a question left unanswered, and with 11 days remaining until teams must file their 25-man playoff rosters, the Padres must quickly make a decision.

“I want to stay here,” said Rasmussen, who’s eligible for free agency at the end of the season. “I’m a proven winner and I can help this team. I think we have a great nucleus here, and I want to be a part of it.”

The Padres also must decide whether they want to pin their hopes on someone such as Cooper next season or go for the proven product. The Padres have keen interest in Met third baseman Gregg Jefferies and, according to sources, are planning to attempt to trade catcher Benito Santiago to the Mets for Jefferies and catcher Todd Hundley.

In the meantime, the Padres’ concerns are at second base, where they’ll be without Bip Roberts for two to four weeks. Roberts underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee Monday to repair lateral meniscus cartilage.

The Padres have made several attempts this season to acquire Cincinnati Red second baseman Mariano Duncan and, at one time offered Rasmussen and infielder Paul Faries for Duncan. But Duncan currently is on the disabled list with a strained left side.