Padres’ Gwynn to Return Today

Tony Gwynn’s quest for 3,000 hits will resume today. Not surprisingly, he wanted to return Wednesday night.

Gwynn was irritable when approached by reporters before the Padres’ game against Oakland, which means he obviously feels he’s ready to play.

“I plan on starting him tomorrow,” Manager Bruce Bochy said of Gwynn, who is 25 hits short of becoming the 22nd player to reach 3,000. “He wants to play tonight. It’s the old adage, give him one more day.”

Gwynn suffered a strained left calf muscle coming out of the batter’s box in the first inning of a 5-4 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on May 21 and was put on the 15-day disabled list the next day.

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Right-hander Carlton Loewer of the Philadelphia Phillies went on the 15-day disabled list because of a stress fracture in his humerus bone, the same one Tony Saunders of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays broke while throwing a pitch.

Unlike Saunders, Dave Dravecky, Tom Browning and John Smiley, Loewer’s injury was caught before it turned into another horrible fracture on the mound.

Loewer had complained of weakness in his pitching arm for about a month and was persuaded to have an MRI. It revealed a partial stress fracture of the right humerus bone.

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Benny Agbayani of the New York Mets bruised his right eye in batting practice Tuesday when he hit a ball off the cage and it bounced back into his eye.

General Manager Steve Phillips said X-rays were negative and showed only a bruise.

“This is good news,” Phillips said. “He has no blurred vision. There is a little swelling on the bottom part of his eye.”

Agbayani will undergo a CT scan today to make sure there is no fracture.