San Diego Padres Playoff Tickets

San Diego Padres Postseason History

The San Diego Padres have had their share of postseason successes, as they have competed for championships on multiple occasions in franchise history. San Diego at their best in the postseason was led by several formidable hitters, with a pitching staff capable of holding up their end of the bargain as well.

Specifically, the 1998 San Diego Padres were one of the most successful iterations of the team in October. They boasted batters who could hit for both contact and power. On the power side of the equation, they had players like Ken Caminiti and Greg Vaughn, with Vaughn hitting 50 home runs during their 1998 National League pennant winning season.

Then there were hitters like Tony Gwynn, who were great at hitting for average. Gwynn hit .321 in the regular season, but that was nothing compared to what he did in the World Series against the New York Yankees that season. Gwynn hit .500 in the World Series against the Yankees, getting on base more than half of the times he came to the plate in the series.

Players like Gwynn, Vaughn, and Caminiti came in handy during the team’s run to the World Series, as the Padres defeated the Astros and Braves to get to the Fall Classic. And while San Diego’s hitters deserved a ton of credit for the team advancing as far as it did, the pitching staff certainly deserved its due as well.

Kevin Brown was the ace of the staff from a starting pitching perspective, with his 0.61 ERA during the division series being one of the most important reasons for the Padres moving to the NLCS. But the biggest star of the pitching staff was closer Trevor Hoffman. A Hall of Famer, Hoffman allowed just one earned run in the NLDS and NLCS combined.

In terms of rivals to the Padres in the postseason, the St. Louis Cardinals are a good choice. The Padres and Cardinals squared off several times in the early rounds of the playoffs in the 1990s and 2000s, with the Padres testing themselves against one of the winningest teams in baseball history at the time.