The Padres had the right starting pitcher in the right place and the right hitter at the plate for one at-bat.

“It almost went to script, right?” Mike Shildt said afterward.

Maybe “almost” because the Padres manager would like to have a scenario in which his team scores more than one run.

But the Padres again scored one more run than their opponent, as Nick Pivetta began the game with seven scoreless innings, relievers Jeremiah Estrada and Adrián Morejón closed out the team’s 13th shutout and new lead-off hitter Luis Arraez drove in the game’s only run.

The 1-0 victory over the Nationals on Wednesday gave the Padres their second series win in a row and completed a 4-2 homestand.

It also gave them four more shutout victories than any other team. The Padres have scored just one run in four of those victories, tied with the Yankees for the most 1-0 wins in the major leagues.

Wednesday’s run came in the second inning after Wade drew a two-out walk against Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore. Wade advanced to second on a single by Elias Díaz, and both runners moved up on a wild pitch while Arraez was at the plate.

Arraez then grounded a ball through the left side for a single that scored Tyler Wade. Díaz was also waved home by third base coach Tim Leiper, and center fielder Jacob Young’s throw beat him by several steps.

It was Arraez up to bat because Shidt shook up the batting order for the second time in four games. He moved Arraez to leadoff for just the second time this season, putting Manny Machado up one spot at No.2, Jackson Merrill third and dropping Fernando Tatis Jr. from first to fourth.

“It worked out,” Shildt said dryly.

There was not an immediate flood of hits.

The Padres got just five of them in six innings against Gore (3-8, 3.09) and one more in the two innings following his departure. Three of those hits were by Arraez. None of the other batters in the top four had a hit.

But the one run turned out to be enough.

“We have a really good bullpen,” Wade said. “I think that comes down to it. Our bullpen is legit.”

And on Wednesday they had good Pivetta, the one who has mostly made himself at home in Petco Park, struck out 10 and allowed three hits while throwing 90 pitches over the first seven innings.

The right-hander improved to 6-0 and lowered his ERA to 2.55 in nine starts in San Diego. Wednesday was the third time he has thrown seven scoreless innings at home. (He is 2-2 with a 4.50 ERA in seven starts on the road.)

Pivetta was coming off a couple clunkers at home, as he has allowed nine runs (eight earned) in his past two starts at Petco Park, against the Dodgers and Royals.

“It was good, pretty happy about it,” Pivetta said. “I would like to continue the consistency and have it leak into my next starts. …  I didn’t contribute too well I feel like in the previous starts but it was nice to come out on top today.”

On Wednesday, he retired the first six batters he faced and allowed just three singles the rest of the way.

“The story starts with the starter today — with Nicky,” Shildt said. “… He was lights out.Clean seven. And we had no margin for error, so good for him. And then went right to where it was going to be interchanging with Estrada and Morejón, depending on where it landed (in the batting order).

With two right-handers due up near the bottom of the Nationals’ lefty-heavy lineup, Estrada was called first and worked a 1-2-3 eighth with help from a rangy play by second baseman Tyler Wade. Morejón retired the Nationals in order in the ninth with help from Díaz springing athletically from behind the plate to deny a bunt single.

Estrada had thrown 10 pitches while getting four outs and Morejón  15 pitches while getting six outs, as the bullpen covered six innings in Tuesday’s 4-3 victory.

It essentially had to go as it did for the Padres on Wednesday.

Usual setup man Jason Adam was unavailable after throwing 27 pitches over 1⅔ innings Tuesday, his MLB-leading 40th appearance and his fourth appearance in six days. And closer Robert Suarez was not even in the bullpen Wednesday, as he began serving his two-game suspension for hitting the Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani with a pitch six days earlier.

“We have each other’s back,” Estrada said. “Today, we couldn’t have Suarez. Pivetta has a dime of a game. He keeps that game 1-0, shoving, getting out of tough situations and just giving us the seven innings, and then us two being able to go work.”