The Pittsburgh Pirates were slated to take on MLB’s stikeouts leader, Dylan Cease of the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night, but that showdown did not materialize as anticipated thanks to a rain delay that paused play in the middle of the second inning at PNC Park for 2 hours, 40 minutes.

Cease pitched only an inning, with Pirates starter Bailey Falter tossing two, as the lengthy delay forced both clubs to lean heavily on their bullpens.

When the game finally resumed following extensive work by the PNC Park grounds crew to clear water (long after the rain stopped) from the warning track due to a drainage system failure, the Pirates went on to lose, 6-0.

Including the rain delay, Tuesday’s game took 5 hours, 17 minutes to complete.

“That was a strange one,” said manager Derek Shelton. “There was just so much water and we had to get to a point where the field was playable.”

The Padres did most of their damage via a four-run top of the fifth against Pirates relievers Jake Woodford and Kyle Nicolas.

The Padres (62-52) went up 1-0 following a pair of Pirates (56-56) defensive mishaps.

Woodford had taken over on the hill after Falter’s night was prematurely cut short and Jackson Merrill doubled down the right field line, with the ball deflecting off first baseman Rowdy Tellez’s glove.

David Peralta then got aboard with a soft liner up the middle before Tyler Wade scored Merrill on a shallow ball into center field that hit off Ji Hwan Bae’s glove as he slid to make a catch.

“The ball of Rowdy’s glove and then the jam shot that (Jared Triolo) just didn’t get to and then the ball Bae dove for — the inning kind of unravelled after that and they got four,” Shelton said. “That’s a frustrating inning. … You’re talking about three balls that really weren’t hit very hard that led to that inning kind of snowballing a little bit.”

Things did not get better for the Pirates when Shelton replaced Woodford with Nicolas.

After Nicolas hit Jurickson Profar to load the bases, Donovan Solano ripped a two-run single past Ke’Bryan Hayes at third, putting San Diego up 3-0.

Both runs were charged to Woodford.

The Padres’ next batter, Xander Bogaerts, collected an RBI single to make it 4-0, but Nicolas escaped the fifth soon thereafter.

Woodford (0-3, 7.41 ERA) took the loss, allowing three runs over 2⅓ innings, allowing three hits with a strikeout.

Nicolas gave the Pirates 2⅔ innings, allowing five hits and a run with one strikeout.

The Pirates also utilized Hunter Stratton and Dennis Santana for an inning apiece in the loss.

“It was definitely frustrating for sure,” Falter said of the delay. “I feel like we all saw this coming, but for some reason, we still played on time. But that’s above my pay grade. My job is to go out there and toe the rubber whenever I’m told.”

The Pirates had little luck against the first man San Diego sent out of the bullpen, Bryan Hoenig, who pitched 3⅔ scoreless innings, allowing a lone hit.

In the seventh, the Pirates put together their best offensive opportunity of the elongated evening, loading the bases against San Diego’s Jason Adam.

With Isiah Kiner-Falefa (single), Hayes (single) and Bae (walk) aboard, the Padres turned to Tanner Scott, who promptly struck out Triolo to end the inning.

Andrew McCutchen led off the eighth with a single and advanced to second on a Bryan Reynolds groundout, but the Pirates stranded him.

Reynolds went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts.

The Padres collected 14 hits on the night, compared to the Pirates’ five.

San Diego added to its lead in the top of the ninth off Santana, when Solano, who went 4 for 5 in the win, collected his third and fourth RBIs of the evening, giving San Diego a 6-0 lead.

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