Top 5 San Diego Padres Teams Of All-Time

Mandatory Credit: ut-sandiego.com

#5: 2005, 2006: The Petco Era Begins

Now I’m combining both of these years because this is the last time the Padres have made the postseason. The 2005 Padres were coming off a great inaugural season at Petco Park in 2004. In 2004, the Padres finished 87-75 finishing 3^rd in the N.L. West after losing 98 games previously to close out the ‘Q’ in 2003. After the Padres got their feet wet in Petco, 2005 started off slow until the month of May, which set the tone for an easy N.L. West that season. The Padres won 22 games in the month of May, entering June at 33-19, without a doubt May, 2005 was one of the best months in Padres history. The Padres that year finished 82-80, which normally puts them in 3^rd of 4^th but luckily the rest of the N.L. West was pretty bad.

What made it worse was the Padres had no chance versus the Padre killers the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cards swept the Padres in the Divisional Series and to make matters worse, star ace pitcher Jake Peavy injured his ribs during a post-season celebration at Petco Park before the series started.

In2006 the Padres tied the Los Angeles Dodgers for the N.L. West title but the Padres won outright because of their head-to-head series record vs L.A. In 2006, they had a better record and a playoff win, the last playoff win to this date. But again, ran into the eventual World Champion St. Louis Cardinals at brand new Busch Stadium.