ST. LOUIS -- The St. Louis Cardinals shouldn't have to wait much longer to get Mark McGwire back -- at least in a limited capacity.

McGwire took early batting practice for the fourth straight day Friday, hitting 13 home runs in about 60 swings in an extended session -- one banging off the scoreboard in left-center.

"I don't foresee myself playing in the field again the rest of the year, but see myself pinch-hitting," McGwire told ESPN's Charley Steiner in an interview Saturday.

McGwire, who's been on the disabled list since July 7 with a severe case of tendinitis in his right knee, said he wouldn't be surprised if he pinch hit at some point in the team's seven-game homestand that began Friday night against the Mets.

That hasn't happened yet.

McGwire has yet to take fielding practice because all of the bending hurts the knee, and he's jogged only lightly.

"At the plate I'm fine," McGwire said. "But on defense you're bending more, you're flexing more, you've got to push off more, and I still have that tight pulling and tearing feeling."

Another unanswered question is whether he'll be able to break out of the batter's box without pain.

So, it's likely he'll be only a pinch hitter the rest of the way. That's fine with McGwire, who said his stated desire to come back as a regular player a few weeks ago was misconstrued as a stand against batting once a night.

"If the only thing I can do is pinch hit, I'll be happy to do that," McGwire said. "Right now, that's what it looks like."

Just seeing him hit was good news for batting coach Mike Easler, who quickly became animated about the subject.

"Mac is great, Mac can do anything," Easler said. "He looked good to me. As long as he doesn't have pain, I think he'll be fine, and it doesn't look like he favored it at all."

The Cardinals could have activated McGwire from the disabled list Friday, along with catcher Eli Marrero and utility player Eduardo Perez, since rosters can now be expanded to 40 players. But they're not going to do it until McGwire is ready to contribute in some capacity.

"If it's just to say you've got another body and the body's not going to be used, why do it?" manager Tony La Russa said.

La Russa said McGwire, who hit a record 70 home runs in 1998, can't be a decoy because he's such a high-profile player.

"There's going to be so much written about him that people will know," La Russa told reporters. "If you guys hadn't asked all these questions, we could pretend he's ready to go."

McGwire said he's kept in good shape during a layoff that's nearing two months. He said he weighed himself a few days ago and was at 251 pounds, his playing weight.

McGwire and the Cardinals haven't changed their anti-surgery stance, even after the season. McGwire said he's talked to athletes who had surgery for the condition and are dissatisfied, so he prefers to rest the knee in the offseason.

"I'm really against it," he said. "The success rate of it totally leaving is not that great and the rehab time is a long time."

McGwire has been told if he had surgery in October, he'd be at about 80 percent in spring training. That's where the Cardinals feel he is, physically, right now.

"It's like starting all over," general manager Walt Jocketty said. "That's the biggest concern, making sure he doesn't do something to hurt his back or something else."

The only other callup so far for the Cardinals is outfielder Thomas Howard, a pinch hitter most of the year with the team. Howard was designated for assignment July 31 when the Cardinals acquired Will Clark, and he accepted a demotion to Triple-A Memphis.

On Monday, reliever Gene Stechschulte will come up for the fifth time from Double-A Arkansas.

Jocketty said there weren't more new names because the Cardinals don't want to decimate the roster at Memphis, which won its division in the Pacific Coast League and is preparing for the playoffs.

"We've disturbed that club enough," he said.