PADRES UPDATE : NOTEBOOK : More Rest Prescribed for Gwynn, Who Still Suffers from Tender Knee

It’s almost a certainty that Tony Gwynn will miss the end of the season for the third consecutive year.

Results of a magnetic resonance imaging test Thursday revealed no improvement in Gwynn’s left knee, and doctors prescribed rest for 10 to 14 more days. Because only 10 days remain in the season, there is little chance he will play again before 1993.

Gwynn has sat out all but four innings of the Padres’ last 15 games because of a strained medial collateral ligament. He was injured in a 16-inning game Sept. 8 in San Francisco.

Before he was hurt, Gwynn tied a career high with five hits. This raised his average to .319 and rekindled hopes for his fifth National League batting championship. Now he is at .317 and in fifth place, 15 points behind the leader, teammate Gary Sheffield.

A year ago, Gwynn missed the last 21 games with an injury to the same knee. In 1990, he missed the last 19 games with a broken right index finger.

“I’m used to it by now,” he said. “There’s not much I can do about it. I just can’t play. I try to push off and I can’t. I’m baffled.”

Gwynn wasn’t surprised by the findings of the MRI test, which he took Wednesday night.

“I tried to get out of the box (in batting practice), and I could see the trainers eyeball me,” he said. “They could see I couldn’t get out of the box.

“I don’t know why I feel great like I do now and then when I go out on the field, I can’t push off. I’m at a loss to explain it.”

Gwynn said it was too early to tell whether surgery would be necessary.

“Basically, the doctors told me to take a week off and see if it gets any better,” he said. “If it doesn’t, it’s back to the same old routine--rehab, exercise, Stairmaster, bike. If it isn’t better by the time we get to Atlanta (for the season’s final series), we’ll have to look at other options.”

Gwynn hopes that a week of rest will make it possible for him to return to the lineup in Atlanta.

“I just want to play,” he said. “I don’t like not being able to contribute. That’s what’s frustrating.”

Not surprisingly, the subject of Gwynn’s weight came up, but he denied that it was a problem. He is listed at 215 pounds, and he said he weighed 217.

“They can say what they want to say,” he said. “It isn’t that at all. My locker has been here all year, and nobody said a word about it. Then the first time I get hurt, they make it an issue.

“If they want to bring it up now, OK. It doesn’t bother me.”

Brad Sloan, the Padres’ national cross-checker, resigned after Jim Riggleman succeeded Greg Riddoch as manager. Five or six more scouts also are expected to quit or be fired.

The Houston Astros are interested in Padre shortstop Tony Fernandez, who has an option year remaining on his contract at $2.3 million. Whether the Padres would let him go, however, is doubtful. They don’t have an adequate replacement.

Eric Anthony, the Astros’ slugging outfielder from Mt. Carmel, was down to his last chance before winning a starting job this season.

“He was out of options and we had to keep him or lose him,” Manager Art Howe said. “He was a borderline case, but he finally got untracked.”

Anthony is hitting only .235 with 17 homers and 75 RBIs.