SAN FRANCISCO -- The Padres shook up their lineup on Saturday. Rookie phenom Jackson Merrill moved into the No. 5 spot, trading places with Jake Cronenworth, who dropped to seventh.

Small margins. But Merrill has been one of the Padres’ best run producers, and they figured it was time to get him higher in their order.

Different lineup, same result. The Padres throttled the Giants, 8-0, their second consecutive emphatic shutout victory at Oracle Park. They pounded out 17 hits to back starter Joe Musgrove, who pitched six scoreless frames.

“One through nine can do damage, score runs, get on base,” said third baseman Manny Machado. “There are just so many different ways that we can win games.”

That’s the thing about Saturday’s lineup tweak. With the postseason looming, every marginal gain is worthwhile. On that front, the Padres gained a game on Arizona on Saturday, building a cushion of 1 1/2 games for the top NL Wild Card spot. They now trail the Dodgers by 3 1/2 games in the NL West race.

But the reality is this: The San Diego lineup is so deep, it almost doesn't matter where Merrill bats. The strength of this offense -- the best in franchise history -- is its ability to produce from top to bottom.

“I don’t think anything changes,” Merrill said before the game. “When your lineup is this deep, everyone is a threat.”

Added manager Mike Shildt: "Look, it's a long lineup. We can put [Merrill] pretty much anywhere and feel pretty good about it."

Consider Donovan Solano. The Padres’ first baseman went 4-for-5 on Saturday night. His wRC+ -- an all-encompassing hitting metric -- is 123. Essentially, Solano has been a 23 percent better hitter than the league average.

And he bats eighth.

“Sometimes, you look to the bottom as a breather,” Shildt said. “There’s just no breathers at the bottom of our lineup. Having Donovan Solano be down there, hitting eighth for us, it says quite a lot about the length of our lineup.”

Xander Bogaerts, meanwhile, is the only Padres starter who is currently hitting at a below-league-average clip. That’s a product of his poor start, before a stint on the injured list in May.

Since Bogaerts’ mid-July return, he’s reeled off a two-month stretch in which he’s hitting .303. His fourth-inning solo homer on Saturday night marked his third home run in the past eight games.

On Saturday, only the scuffling Cronenworth was held hitless among Padres starters. Each of their top five hitters reached base multiple times. Merrill, batting fifth for the first time, went 2-for-5 and drove in a pair of runs.

Machado, batting ahead of Merrill, posted the same line. His first-inning double opened the scoring. In the first two games of their weekend series in San Francisco, the Padres have led after every half inning.

“It’s a good feeling as a pitcher, gives you a lot of confidence,” Musgrove said. “Especially when they get you an early lead. As soon as I get a lead, I’m filling it up. I’m going at guys.”

Musgrove did exactly that on Saturday. Like Dylan Cease the night before, Musgrove pitched six scoreless innings, a strong bounce-back effort after his rough outing -- er, inning -- against this same Giants team on Sunday at Petco Park.

Six days ago, Musgrove allowed six runs in a brutal fourth inning against San Francisco. In every other inning across his seven starts since returning from an elbow injury, Musgrove has allowed just four total runs. He’s still not entirely sure what to make of that inning -- other than the obvious…

“Pitching’s weird sometimes, man,” Musgrove said.

The Padres broke the game open in the sixth, beginning with Luis Arraez’s two-out RBI single. Arraez would finish the night 2-for-6, extending his remarkable streak of plate appearances without a strikeout to 135. (That remains the longest such streak since Juan Pierre reached 147 in 2004.)

Arraez’s single plated Solano. Fernando Tatis Jr. followed by singling and stealing a base. Jurickson Profar worked the second of his three walks. Then, Machado drove in two more with another two-out hit (before hustling to second after a wayward throw).

The 2024 Padres offense.

“Not many selfish at-bats,” Musgrove said. “You see guys getting jobs done when they need to.”

“Just relentless at-bats the whole way through,” Shildt said.

The Padres believe it’s the type of lineup that might thrive in the postseason, where runs are at a premium.

They might find out soon enough.