The Best San Diego Padres Seasons and Every October Run
The Padres' best seasons by record and all 16 postseason series from 1984 through 2025, with two pennants, no World Series title, and the pattern behind the Division Series losses.
The San Diego Padres have played 57 seasons in the historical record, from 1969 through 2025, and they have won two National League pennants and no World Series. They have reached October in only a minority of those seasons, and when they got there they won seven postseason series and lost nine. That sounds like a thin résumé until you read the individual seasons: the 1998 club that won 98 games and beat two of the best teams in the league on its way to a sweep by the Yankees, the 2022 club that eliminated a 101-win Mets team and a 111-win Dodgers team in the same month, and the 2024 and 2025 clubs that won 93 and 90 games and still found the door narrow.
This article walks through the six best regular seasons by winning percentage, then through every postseason series the club has played, in the order it played them. Everything comes from the historical record through the 2025 season. Where a number is not in that database, such as a playoff score or a pitch count, the article does not state it.
For the live record and next game, see the San Diego Padres team page. The longer story of the franchise, including the early years and the ownership changes, is in the history of the San Diego Padres, and the players are covered in the best players in San Diego Padres history.
The six best regular seasons by winning percentage
Among seasons of 100 or more games, the Padres' best records are these.
| Season | Record | Pct. | Finish and result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 98-64 | .605 | Won the division and the pennant, swept in the World Series |
| 2024 | 93-69 | .574 | Second in the division, wild card, lost the Division Series 3-2 |
| 1984 | 92-70 | .568 | Won the division and the pennant, lost the World Series 4-1 |
| 1996 | 91-71 | .562 | Won the division, swept in the Division Series |
| 2010 | 90-72 | .556 | Second in the division, no postseason |
| 2025 | 90-72 | .556 | Second in the division, wild card, lost the Wild Card Series |
Two features of that table stand out. First, the Padres have never had a 100-win season in the database; their best is the 98 of 1998. Second, three of the six seasons ended in a first- or second-round exit, and one of them, 2010, ended with no playoff at all. The club's postseason story has been written mostly by teams that were good rather than dominant, in a division that for decades contained the Dodgers and the Giants.
1969 to 1983: the expansion years
The Padres entered the National League in 1969 as an expansion club, and the first season was exactly what expansion seasons usually are: 52-110, the worst record in franchise history. Two more 60-102 seasons followed, in 1973 and 1974. The club did not finish above .500 in its first nine years in the database, and its first winning mark was 84-78 in 1978, good for fourth place.
Those years had stars all the same. Dave Winfield played for San Diego from 1973 through 1980, hit 154 home runs for the club and later reached the Hall of Fame. Randy Jones won the 1976 Cy Young Award and finished with 92 wins in a Padres uniform. Rollie Fingers saved 108 games for the team between 1977 and 1980. Gaylord Perry won the 1978 Cy Young Award with San Diego. Ozzie Smith played shortstop from 1978 through 1981 before his Hall of Fame career in St. Louis. The point is that talent arrived long before the wins did, and the club needed a decade to put it together.
The franchise also had a stability problem in those years, and the period around 1973 and 1974 included a threatened sale and a possible move. Ray Kroc, the McDonald's founder, bought the club in 1974, and the Padres stayed in San Diego. The lesson was that a market with a strong baseball following and a weak team could stay put if ownership showed up.
1984: the first pennant
The 1984 club went 92-70, won the National League West, and then did something nobody expected in the Championship Series. Facing the Cubs in a best-of-five series, the Padres lost the first two games and then won the next three, taking the series 3-2. Dick Williams, who had managed the club since 1982 and who managed 649 games for it in all, was the architect; Tony Gwynn won the first of his eight batting titles at .351; Rich Gossage anchored the bullpen; and the lineup also included Alan Wiggins, who stole 171 bases for the club over five years.
The World Series was a mismatch on paper. Detroit had won 104 games, and the Tigers beat San Diego four games to one. The Padres finished 1-4 and the title stayed out of reach, but the series left behind the franchise's first big postseason memory. A club that had never won more than 84 games had reached the Fall Classic after only 16 seasons.
1985 to 1995: Gwynn and the lean years
The decade after 1984 was inconsistent. The Padres went 89-73 in 1989 and finished second, then fell back to 61-101 in 1993 when the club sold off veterans such as Fred McGriff and Gary Sheffield. Those years belong to Tony Gwynn, who played every one of his 20 seasons in San Diego and finished with 3,141 hits and a .338 average, the highest career average among club hitters with 3,000 at-bats. He hit .394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season, 165 hits in 419 at-bats, and the strike ended that season before the Padres, who were 47-70, could do anything with it.
There was no postseason baseball in San Diego between 1984 and 1996, a gap of twelve years. Eric Show won 100 games for the club between 1981 and 1990, the franchise record, and Gwynn kept piling up hits, but the 1985 through 1995 teams never won the division.
1996: the first Division Series
The division and wild-card format was new in 1995. The Padres won it in 1996 with a 91-71 record and a lineup that included Ken Caminiti, who hit .326 with 40 home runs and 130 RBIs and won the National League's Most Valuable Player award. Bruce Bochy had taken over as manager in 1995 and would manage the club for 1,926 games through 2006, more than any other Padres manager.
The opponent in the Division Series was St. Louis, which had won only 88 games. The Cardinals swept the series 3-0. It was the first of three Division Series that the Padres lost to St. Louis, and the pattern is hard to ignore: 1996 (0-3), 2005 (0-3) and 2006 (1-3).
1998: 98 wins and a sweep
If you want the best Padres team on paper, it is the 1998 club. It went 98-64 under Bochy and won the National League West. Kevin Brown went 18-7 with a 2.38 ERA and 257 strikeouts. Greg Vaughn hit 50 home runs, third in the National League behind Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Trevor Hoffman saved 53 games, leading the league.
The Padres beat Houston three games to one in the Division Series. Houston had won 102 games. Then they beat Atlanta four games to two in the Championship Series. Atlanta had won 106 games. The club had to beat both of the National League's best teams to get to the World Series, and it did.
In the World Series they met the Yankees, who had won 114 games and who swept San Diego in four. The 1998 Yankees are often named among the best teams in the sport's history. Losing to them is no embarrassment, but it left the club 0-2 in World Series, and the second of those two defeats was a sweep.
2005 to 2007: three October exits in four years
Between 1998 and 2005 the Padres did not win the division, and the club moved from Qualcomm Stadium into Petco Park in 2004. In 2005 the Padres won the National League West with an 82-80 record, a modest number that came from a weak division. They faced the Cardinals, who had won 100 games, and were swept 3-0.
The 2006 team improved to 88-74, won the division again, and lost to St. Louis 3-1 in the Division Series. The Cardinals won only 83 games in 2006 and went on to win the World Series. If you want a sense of what the Padres were up against, that is it.
The 2007 season produced a different kind of heartbreak. Jake Peavy had a spectacular year, going 19-6 with a 2.54 ERA and 240 strikeouts and winning the National League Cy Young Award. The Padres finished 89-74, tied with Colorado for the wild card, and lost a one-game playoff to the Rockies in 13 innings, with Trevor Hoffman on the mound for the decisive rally. The historical 89-74 record includes that loss. The Rockies, whose history you can read in the Colorado Rockies franchise history, went to the World Series.
2010: 90 wins and nothing
The 2010 team won 90 games and finished two games behind the Giants, who won 92 and went on to win the World Series. This is the cleanest example of a good Padres season with no October. The pitching staff allowed just 581 runs while the offense scored 665, a run differential that supports the 90 wins, and the Padres led the division for much of the season before the Giants passed them.
The next decade was one of the leanest in club history. From 2011 through 2019 the Padres never had a winning season, with a low of 66-96 in 2018, and they did not return to the postseason until the shortened 2020 campaign. Manny Machado joined in 2019, and in the years since, Machado has hit more home runs for the club than anyone else (194 through 2025), while Fernando Tatis has hit 152.
2020 to 2025: four wild cards in six years
The pandemic season of 2020 ran 60 games. The Padres went 37-23, finished second to the Dodgers, and reached the expanded postseason as a wild card. They beat the Cardinals 2-1 in the Wild Card Series, then faced the 43-17 Dodgers and lost the Division Series 0-3. The Dodgers won the World Series that year.
The 2022 season is the best postseason run of the Petco Park era. San Diego went 89-73, finished second in the West and entered as a wild card. It beat the Mets 2-1 in the Wild Card Series, then beat the Dodgers, who had won 111 games, three games to one in the Division Series. The Padres then lost the Championship Series to the Phillies 4-1, a club that had won 87 games. It was the first time the Padres had been to the League Championship Series in 24 years.
In 2023 the club finished 82-80 in third place, and Blake Snell won the Cy Young Award. In 2024 it won 93 games, the second-best record in club history, swept Atlanta 2-0 in the Wild Card Series, and lost a five-game Division Series to the Dodgers, 2-3. The Dodgers went on to beat the Yankees in the World Series. In 2025 the club won 90 games, met the Cubs, who had won 92, in the Wild Card Series and lost, one game to two. Attendance at Petco Park in 2025 was 3,437,201, the highest in club history.
The full ledger
Here is every Padres postseason series in the historical record.
| Year | Round | Result | Opponent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Championship Series | Won 3-2 | Chicago Cubs |
| 1984 | World Series | Lost 1-4 | Detroit Tigers |
| 1996 | Division Series | Lost 0-3 | St. Louis Cardinals |
| 1998 | Division Series | Won 3-1 | Houston Astros |
| 1998 | Championship Series | Won 4-2 | Atlanta Braves |
| 1998 | World Series | Lost 0-4 | New York Yankees |
| 2005 | Division Series | Lost 0-3 | St. Louis Cardinals |
| 2006 | Division Series | Lost 1-3 | St. Louis Cardinals |
| 2020 | Wild Card Series | Won 2-1 | St. Louis Cardinals |
| 2020 | Division Series | Lost 0-3 | Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 2022 | Wild Card Series | Won 2-1 | New York Mets |
| 2022 | Division Series | Won 3-1 | Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 2022 | Championship Series | Lost 1-4 | Philadelphia Phillies |
| 2024 | Wild Card Series | Won 2-0 | Atlanta Braves |
| 2024 | Division Series | Lost 2-3 | Los Angeles Dodgers |
| 2025 | Wild Card Series | Lost 1-2 | Chicago Cubs |
The totals are 7 series wins and 9 losses. By round, the Padres are 3-1 in Wild Card Series, 2-5 in Division Series, 2-1 in Championship Series and 0-2 in the World Series. The Dodgers have appeared in three of those series, and the Padres' record against them is 1-2, a fact that connects this franchise to the Dodgers' history and to a rivalry that grew as both clubs got better.
What the pattern means
Three things stand out. First, the club has been good rather than dominant. Its best winning percentage is .605, and the Padres have never won more than 98 games. Teams like that reach October but have a harder time winning a short series against clubs that won more.
Second, the division has mattered. For most of the Padres' existence the NL West has included the Dodgers and Giants, two of the oldest rivals in the sport. Since 1993 it has also included the Rockies, and since 1998 the Diamondbacks, whose history is in the Arizona Diamondbacks franchise history. Dodgers dominance in recent years has pushed the Padres into the wild-card pool, where a three-game series is almost a coin flip.
Third, the Padres have never had a long run. Contrast the five division titles (1984, 1996, 1998, 2005, 2006) with the four wild cards (2020, 2022, 2024, 2025). The club has produced a good team every few years but has not strung together the kind of long window that wins titles. For the structure of the playoff rounds and how World Series formats have changed, see the history of the World Series.
Common questions
Have the Padres ever won the World Series? No. They have reached it twice, in 1984 and 1998, and lost both.
What is the best Padres record? The 1998 club went 98-64. As of 2025 no Padres team has won 100 games.
Who is the club's career leader in saves? Trevor Hoffman, with 552 for the Padres between 1993 and 2008.
Which Padres won the Most Valuable Player award? Ken Caminiti, in 1996. Five Padres pitchers have won the Cy Young Award with the club: Randy Jones in 1976, Gaylord Perry in 1978, Mark Davis in 1989, Jake Peavy in 2007 and Blake Snell in 2023.
How many division titles do the Padres have? Five: 1984, 1996, 1998, 2005 and 2006. They have reached the postseason as a wild card four times.
Where to go next
For the park where the recent seasons were played, read the Petco Park guide and the site's Petco Park page. The San Diego Padres topic page collects current news on the club.