PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies did not batter Matt Waldron.

They just sort of ran him ragged, and his outing unraveled, as it can when knuckleballs are flittering in and out of the strike zone, off the catcher’s glove, occasionally glove to the backstop.

In Waldron’s first start of the season, Waldron allowed all of the Phillies’ runs in 4⅔ innings in what ended up a 4-0 loss for the Padres on Monday night at Citizens Bank Park.

If Waldron wasn’t battered, then Phillies starter Zack Wheeler was hardly bothered.

The right-hander struck out 10 while spreading six hits over eight innings, and the Padres suffered their first shutout since the last day of June after Tanner Banks set them down in the ninth.

It rarely takes many runs to the beat the Padres lately.

Waldron allowed six hits and six walks, and he paid for two stolen bases and a wild pitch in one of those innings.

After a lead-off walk a single and a fielder’s choice grounder put the Phillies up 1-0 in the second inning, Waldron walked two more with two outs in the third before Jackson Merrill’s leaping catch above the wall on a drive to straightaway center field by Max Kepler saved three runs.

The Phillies got two in the next inning without hitting a ball of consequence out of the infield.

Bryson Stott drew a one-out walk, stole second and scored from there on Brandon Marsh’s single to first baseman Luis Arraez. The grounder by Marsh was slow, and Arraez was playing deep on the first, and it took Waldron a long time to get to first base. Stott, who slowed down just a bit as he rounded third, took off for home as Arraez let go of his underhand toss to Waldron, and he slid in just ahead of the tag by catcher Martín Maldonado after a throw home by Waldron.

Marsh stole second two pitches later, went to third on a wild pitch and scored on Trea Turner’s infield single, a chopper to third base that Manny Machado simply had to hold.

After walking Kyle Schwarber, Waldron got out of the inning thanks to another fine defensive play — Arraez diving toward the bag to catch a line drive by Bryce Harper and then touching the bag to double up Turner.

Down 3-0 against Zack Wheeler felt like the end of the game was a formality.

The Padres had scored four runs or more in not even half their games over the previous month.

They had the tying run at the plate with one out in the fourth when Xander Bogaert singled and Jake Cronenworth walked, bringing up the bottom two hitters in their order coming up.

Wheeler struck out No.8 hitter Bryce Johnson for the second time before Mike Shildt had Trenton Brooks pinch-hit for Martín Maldonado. Brooks lined a ball at 101 mph right at Stott. The Phillies’ second baseman caught the ball and threw to shortstop Trea Turner to double up Bogaerts at second.

A one-out home run by Nick Castellano made it 4-0, and Waldron was replaced by Wandy Peralta after yielding a two-out single.

Waldron, who was starting in place of the injured Ryan Bergert,  finished the night having thrown 104 pitches. Of those, 77 were knuckleballs, the most he had ever thrown in any of his 33 MLB starts.

Singles in the sixth inning by Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. and one in the eighth by Arraez were the last of the Padres’ six hits.