PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : Padres’ Problem Is Playing Pennant Catch-Up With 2 Teams

Whatever visions the Padres might have had of overtaking the Atlanta Braves and Dodgers quickly dissipated Wednesday night.

The trio of Kent Mercker, Mark Wohlers and Alejandro Pena threw the first no-hitter against the Padres since 1973, when another Brave accomplished the feat, Phil Niekro.

The 1-0 defeat left the Padres 8 1/2 games behind the Braves and eight games behind the Dodgers with only 22 left to play. It also ended the Padres’ seven-game winning streak and brought on a feeling of helplessness.

“We found out the hard way,” Padre infielder Tim Teufel said. “It’s hard enough catching one team, but two teams, it’s impossible.”

The Padres made their run with brilliant pitching, winning 13 of 17 games, but the lone run Greg Harris allowed Wednesday--courtesy of Terry Pendleton’s fifth-inning home run--was too much.

Really, the Padres’ lone threat for the night occurred in the seventh when Fred McGriff hit a towering fly ball to deep center field. Wohlers thought it was gone. Center fielder Ron Gant thought he had run out of room.

Instead, with Gant’s back touching the center-field fence, the ball came nestled in his glove.

“He must have gotten splinters on that one,” Wohlers said.

Said Gant: “Actually, I got paint on my back.”

Indeed, the Padres were playing the first game at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with its newly padded fences, which weren’t done being painted until 3 p.m.

Mark Frederickson, who changed a scoring call the last time the Padres were in town--resulting in Padre starter Andy Benes leaving with a no-hitter--found himself the focus of controversy again.

He ruled that Darrin Jackson’s bouncer with two outs in the ninth was an error. Actually, Pendleton lost it in the lights.

“It was really like an outfield play,” Frederickson said. “Once he committed to it, and didn’t get it, it was an error. That was an (error) whether it was the first batter of the game or the last.”

Said Padre Manager Greg Riddoch: “If it’s my pitcher, it’s an error, too. You better have a clean hit in that situation.”

The Padres still are having talks with shortstop Tony Fernandez about restructuring his contract, but General Manager Joe McIlvaine does not anticipate completing a deal until after the season.

Fernandez has two option years remaining on his contract for $2.1 million in 1992 and $2.3 million in 1993. If the Padres pick up the option years, they must pay him an additional $10,000.

But because Fernandez was traded in the middle of a multi-year contract, he has the right to demand a trade within 15 days after the conclusion of the World Series. If the Padres and Fernandez then don’t come to an agreement, Fernandez would have to be traded by March 15 or become a free agent.

“I don’t know why people are making such a big deal about that,” McIlvaine said. “That right has been exercised only twice in the history of the Basic Agreement. Don’t forget, if you exercise that right, you also lose your free agency for five years.”

Right fielder Tony Gwynn, who can’t shake his second-half slump, watched his batting average drop to a season-low .317 by going hitless in three at-bats.

Gwynn, who’s playing with torn cartilage in his left knee, is batting .241 since July 11, and is in a one-for-16 (.063) skid his past four games.

“I keep waiting to come out of it,” Gwynn said, “I just don’t know when it’ll happen.”

Wohlers, a rookie who now has retired all seven Padres he has faced in his brief career, spanning two outings: “I wonder if I could pitch against these guys in all 162 games.”

The Padres kept outfielder Bip Roberts out of the starting lineup Wednesday, with the Padres planning to monitor his progress.

Roberts returned from the disabled list Tuesday against Houston and played left field for seven innings, but awoke Wednesday with soreness in his left knee.

“I’ll be all right,” Roberts said. “It’s just tight from not playing for so long.”

Said Riddoch: “It might be a thing where we’ll just play him every other day for a while. We don’t want to rush it, and take the chance of him hurting it again.”

Roberts wound up pinch-hitting in the ninth. Jerald Clark started in left and went hitless in two at-bats.

Padre starter Ed Whitson took a flight Wednesday to Birmingham, Ala., for an appointment with Dr. James Andrews, the specialist who performed the arthroscopic surgery July 15 on his right elbow. . . . The Padres have changed the starting times of two of their games next week. Their Wednesday, Sept. 18 game against the Braves has been moved up to 6:05 p.m. to accommodate ESPN, instead of the scheduled time of 7:05 p.m. And their Saturday, Sept. 21 game, has been moved to 7:05 p.m. instead of the scheduled time of 12:15 p.m.