Padres light up Oracle Park in thick of Wild Card race

SAN FRANCISCO -- Strange night at Oracle Park. Or, at least, it started strangely enough. The Padres, to their credit, made certain things never got any weirder than they needed to be.

Locked in an ever-tightening Wild Card race, the Padres had a game to win, and they won it -- even if they had to play the first two innings under sub-optimal lighting, while withstanding a 10-minute umpire delay, then an eventual 40-minute stadium-lighting delay.

“At the end of the day, no one cares if there was a delay,” said Padres starter Mike Clevinger. “All anyone’s going to care about is if it was a win or a loss. We had the same kind of mindset: It didn’t matter if there was a delay. We needed to win this ballgame.”

They did exactly that, a tense 6-5 victory over the Giants on Monday night that lasted nearly 4 1/2 hours including the two delays. With the win, the Padres moved within 1 1/2 games of the Phillies for the second National League Wild Card spot, and they maintained their 1 1/2-game lead over the Brewers for the final spot in the postseason.

“It ended up being a long day,” said Padres manager Bob Melvin. “Kind of a crazy day. But a win is a win.”

Brandon Drury went 2-for-4 with a homer and a fifth-inning RBI single that proved decisive. In the top of the first, he turned on a Carlos Rodón fastball and sent it five rows deep in left field, giving the Padres an early 3-0 lead.

After that, things got weird. Clevinger’s first pitch in the bottom half of the first inning was a foul pop that catcher Austin Nola couldn’t handle. On the play, plate ump Marvin Hudson slipped and sustained an injury while tracking Nola behind the plate, prompting the first delay.

In the meantime, the stadium’s lighting system wasn’t fully functioning, and the ballpark got darker with every pitch. The two teams managed to play two innings amid the gloaming, but when the sun set and the lighting issues still hadn’t been sorted out, the three remaining umpires convened and determined it was too dark to continue. A 40-minute delay ensued, and the players retreated to their clubhouses.

“A delay and then a significant delay -- that’s tough to deal with,” said Melvin, when asked to assess Clevinger’s performance. “If he could give us five like that and end up getting the win, he certainly did his job.”

Clevinger allowed two runs -- on Joc Pederson’s two-run blast -- across his five innings. He threw 83 pitches, though it probably felt like a lot more than that. Melvin estimated that Clevinger’s true workload was likely closer to 150 pitches, considering the extra work he needed to do to stay loose during the delays.

Not that Clevinger seemed to mind. He simply called it “a good workload.”

“He just loves pitching,” said Nola. “He loves being out there. It could’ve been a four-hour delay. He still would’ve wanted the ball.”

Even though the Padres held a comfortable lead for most of the night, it was the type of quirky game where you began to wonder what other craziness might be in store. Surely, a game that had started so strangely wouldn’t end so tamely.

Adrian Morejon followed Clevinger with two scoreless frames, before Robert Suarez ran into some trouble, loading the bases with two outs. That’s when Melvin called upon Nick Martinez for a four-out save.

“That’s just another thing that, really, he hasn’t been through,” Melvin said. “He’s had his three-inning saves. He’s had his one-inning saves. Now, he’s had to do one-plus, which can be pretty tough for someone who hasn’t had to do it before.”

Then again, Martinez has handled just about everything the Padres have thrown his way. He’s started games. He’s pitched in long-relief and setup roles. Now, with Josh Hader struggling, Martinez has seemingly assumed the temporary closer job.

So far, Martinez’s transition to short-burst reliever has paid major dividends for the Padres. In 11 appearances this month, he hasn’t allowed a run, though he did allow all three inherited runners to score on Monday.

“He’s done well against right, he’s done well against left, and as soon as he started showing up in the bullpen, the velo picked up, too,” Melvin said. “He’s got a lot of energy and confidence doing the role right now. He’s done a great job with it.”

Sure enough, Martinez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning, and a game that had started in such bizarre fashion ended with minimal fuss.