Padres soak Bucs after long delay to climb in West, Wild races

PITTSBURGH -- The skies had already cleared, but the Padres and Pirates were still mired in a longer-than-expected rain delay, when Jackson Merrill and a few of his teammates wandered to the center-field warning track Tuesday night.

It was under water. Merrill took one look and turned to the Padres’ dugout, using his hands to indicate how deep the water was. Realizing that wouldn’t truly sum up the situation, he put those hands together and mimicked a dive into water.

• Box score

Of course, no matter what the warning track looked like, this much was always clear to Merrill:

“Dude, I don’t care if there’s a lake out there or a river,” Merrill said. “I’m going to play.”

Eventually, the Padres and Pirates played. And when they did, San Diego rode a dominant effort from five relievers, plus a four-hit night from Donovan Solano, to a 6-0 victory at PNC Park.

All totaled, the delay (two hours, 40 minutes) lasted longer than the game itself (two hours, 37 minutes). The Padres played most of it without ace Dylan Cease, who had pitched one scoreless inning before the downpour arrived.

Cease returned to the mound after 75 minutes, expecting play to resume -- only for the flooded warning track to cause further delay. When it became evident the game wouldn’t be resuming on time, manager Mike Shildt decided it wasn’t worth the risk. Cease's outing was done.

“It was pretty frustrating, for sure,” Cease said. “I wanted to pitch.”

After one inning, the Padres had lost their ace and would need to cover the final eight frames with their bullpen. Shildt has a catchphrase for situations like this one (because Shildt loves few things more than a good catchphrase).

The baseball season is long and full of unexpected twists and turns. The best teams are usually the teams who best handle those twists and turns. The best teams, Shildt often says, are "elite adjusters."

Hard to find a better example than this one.

“Our guys love to play,” Shildt said. “So I knew they were going to come out regardless of circumstance and be ready to compete. It starts on the mound, and [Bryan] Hoeing was fantastic.”

A righty swingman acquired from Miami at last week’s Trade Deadline, Hoeing worked 3 2/3 scoreless innings in relief. During the delay, he had been informed that he would take the mound if the delay prompted Cease’s removal.

“I knew, once it was a two-hour rain delay, it was going to be me,” Hoeing said. “So I had plenty of time to prepare mentally and physically to go out there and pitch multiple innings.”

Hoeing’s effort set the tone, as five San Diego relievers combined to work eight scoreless innings with 13 strikeouts. The Padres broke the game open with a four-run fifth, featuring plenty of help from Pittsburgh’s defense.

Each of San Diego’s first three hits in the frame caromed off the glove of a different Pirates defender. Tyler Wade's bloop to center eluded Ji-Hwan Bae and opened the scoring. Solano followed by plating two of his four RBIs with a single.

“Every win’s important for us right now,” Solano said. “Everybody here wanted to play today … no matter what time we go onto the field.”

Indeed, the Padres find themselves in the thick of converging playoff-race plot lines. They moved into sole possession of the National League’s first Wild Card spot with Tuesday’s victory. They also gained further separation from one of the teams in the chasing pack of postseason hopefuls. Perhaps most notably, San Diego closed the gap to four games on the rival Dodgers in the NL West -- as narrow as that gap has been since April.

So, yes, there was plenty at stake on Tuesday night -- and plenty of reason for the Padres to wait for the water to clear. Shildt was nothing but complimentary of the umpiring crew for the way the situation was handled.

“We had to make the hard decision that we were going to pull back the [anticipated] 8:15 start time and take as long as it was going to take to fix the field,” said crew chief Andy Fletcher. “I think everybody understood the situation. We didn't anticipate the drains backing up like they did.”

For the Padres, it was worth the wait. Once play resumed, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, the first batter, sent a deep drive to that center-field warning track.

“Of course,” Merrill would say afterward.

He ranged to the wall and made the catch, no swimsuit necessary.