The lights came on as afternoon faded to evening, and the longest game in the majors this season turned on an error by a third-string catcher who was playing first base. Wilson Valdez scoring an unearned go-ahead run on Brady Clark's double with two outs in the 17th and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 5-4 on Sunday.

The Dodgers took two of three from San Diego, and have beaten the two-time defending NL West champion Padres four times in six games this year.

Looking at it another way, it was one inning short of being the equivalent of a four-game series.

"It was just one of those games," said Clark, who played at the University of San Diego. "It's huge to get that win right there. You play a game that long, if you don't win it, you'd have some miserable people."

Less than 24 hours earlier, the teams blew threw a 2-hour, 4-minute game won by Greg Maddux and the Padres, 3-2.

Both bullpens were absolutely lights-out, and the game might have gone longer if not for Pete Laforest's fielding error in the 17th.

Valdez reached on a one-out bunt when Laforest reached for a high throw from catcher Rob Bowen and had it hit off the top of his glove. Laforest replaced Adrian Gonzalez during a double-switch three innings earlier.

"I just tried to reach a little bit more," Laforest said. "The ball just rose on me and I couldn't reach any more."

With two outs, Clark doubled into the left-field corner off rookie Justin Hampson to bring in Valdez. Clark was fooled by a curveball, then got enough of another curve.

"My thought was just get a good pitch to hit," Clark said. "It wasn't exactly a great pitch to hit, but it worked. Sometimes it happens."

The previous longest game in the majors was Wednesday, when Pittsburgh beat Houston 4-3 in 16 innings, a game that lasted 4 hours, 48 minutes. The Dodgers-Padres game took 4:55.

The previous longest game at Petco Park in innings was a 16-inning, 5-4 win over Arizona on April 29, 2005. The longest by time was a loss to Oakland last June 29 that took 4:42 and 14 innings.

Until the 17th, the Dodgers hadn't scored in 14 1-3 innings, since Jeff Kent and Luis Gonzalez hit consecutive home runs off David Wells with one out in the third to take a 4-1 lead.