Lake Fong, Post-Gazette Starter Oliver Perez gave up nine hits and five runs in three innings last night against the Padres at PNC Park. Click photo for larger image. More coverage: Pirates Notebook: Standings illustrate huge climb ahead Game Statistics Provided by Forecaster Pirates vs. Padres box score Game play-by-play

It took a hard rain, but all of it washed away.

Oliver Perez's progress.

The offensive prowess.

The Pirates' four-game winning streak, too, spun down the drain with a 7-0, six-inning, weather-shortened whitewash by the San Diego Padres last night at PNC Park.

"Tough night," right fielder Jeromy Burnitz said. "About as bad as it gets."

And he was not referring to any aspect of the outcome.

The start was delayed two hours despite marginal precipitation, and the game was permitted to proceed, curiously, just as the hardest rain of the evening began to fall at 9:05 p.m. The decision when or if to begin the game is the responsibility of the home team.

Not long after the first pitch, the field was barely playable, with puddles bordering on ponds covering the infield and warning track. The grounds crew dumped and spread nearly 200 bags of quick-drying dirt -- roughly 4 1/2 tons -- on the mound and infield, but the work was mostly in vain.

Despite that, home plate umpire Bill Miller, who assumes responsibility for weather calls after the first pitch, allowed no interruptions until finally raising his arms following the sixth, one inning after the game had become official. Only three minutes beyond the required half-hour wait, at 11:40 p.m., he called it off.

By that time, no more than 100 of the original crowd of 20,777 remained.

Pirates manager Jim Tracy offered no complaint about Miller's judgment.

"Once it got started and they got the lead," he said of San Diego scoring three times in the first, "it becomes a very tough call because one side or the other is going to be extremely disappointed. You're disappointed if you know that you're limited in what you can do to get back in it, or you're disappointed if you have a five- or seven-run lead, and it's called before the fifth."

Burnitz was not nearly as understanding on the matter, but his focus was on the initial delay.

"The baffling thing to me, personally, is that, if you're committed to playing games in rain -- and it seems to me the policy this year is a little different in that regard -- why don't we just start on time?" he said. "Sure, there are plenty of reasons for it but, if you're going to do it, don't do it late."

The Pirates played a game May 3 at New York's Shea Stadium in which it rained steadily for nine of the 12 innings.

Still, each team last night was playing in the same conditions, as the saying goes, and it was only the Pirates who ended up all wet.

Perez had been hoping to build off his three finest outings of the season, but he was chased after three innings and San Diego up by five. That lowered his record to 2-6 and raised his ERA to 5.98, again the highest on the team.

"He never got into any kind of rhythm," Tracy said. "Right from the get-go."

Eric Young led off the game with a single, stole second and scored on Brian Giles' one-out single. The next batter, Mike Piazza sent a 1-2 fastball over the North Side Notch in left-center for a 3-0 San Diego lead.

Perez had appeared to strike out each of Giles and Piazza, looking at crisp 0-2 fastballs over the outside corner, but Miller did not see it that way.

"He's the person who decides the balls and strikes," Perez said with a shrug. "Sometimes, it happens that way."

The Padres scored again in the second, Josh Barfield's double followed immediately by Park's RBI single.

Park struck again in the third with a two-out, two-strike RBI single that made it 5-0.

Perez's line would include nine hits and, although he did not walk a batter, he ran up a painful pitch count of 88, including 30 balls.

Was the delay a factor?

"No," he replied. "I stretched a half-hour before I pitched just like any other game."

And the rain?

"It's not easy, but it's no excuse."

Park made that much abundantly apparent, looking comfortable in all facets. At the plate, he wound up 3 for 3 to boost his season average to .400 in 20 at-bats. On the mound, he limited an offense that had produced 84 runs in the previous dozen games to five hits while lasting all six innings.

Ryan Vogelsong relieved Perez in the fourth and promptly gave up Giles' two-run home run above the Clemente Wall.

It all seemed rather forgettable for the Pirates, especially in the aftermath of the double-walkoff victory Thursday, and that is precisely how Tracy is hoping it will be taken by the players.

"Let's put it in perspective, move on, and realize we've been playing very well lately," he said. "This doesn't change that."