1996 San Diego Padres season
The 1996 San Diego Padres season was the 28th season in franchise history. Player stats. Batting. Starters by position. "Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in" Other batters. "Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in" National League Division Series. St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Diego Padres. St. Louis wins the series, 3-0 The Cardinals and  Padres began their rivalry in this series. The Cardinals' first of three postseason victories against the Padres took place here. Their dominance is overwhelming to the tune of only one loss against the Padres lifetime in the postseason. A 3-run homer by Gary Gaetti off Joey Hamilton put the Cardinals up for good. Todd Stottlemyre pitched masterfully, allowing only one earned run on a solo home run by Rickey Henderson. Rick Honeycutt and Dennis Eckersley shut the Padres down for the win. A well fought Game 2 saw the Cardinals squander two leads. Scott Sanders faced Andy Benes. Willie  McGee put the Cardinals on top on the 3rd with an RBI single. Ken Caminiti tied the game with a leadoff homer in the 5th. Ron Gant cleared the bases with a double in the Cardinals 5th to make it 4-1. A 2 run single by Tony Gwynn made it a one run game in the Padres 6th. An RBI ground out by Steve Finley tied the game in the Padres 8th. But the Cardinals would score a run in the 8th on an RBI ground out that scored Brian Jordan. Dennis Eckersley got his 2nd save of the  postseason. In Game 3, the Cardinals looked to Donovan Osborne to put the Padres away. Opposing the potential sweep would be Andy Ashby. Brian Jordan put the Cardinals ahead when he singled to center field to score Royce Clayton. A would-be double play ball in the bottom of the 2nd helped the Padres take the lead 2-1. Then Ken Caminiti homered to make it 3-1 in the 3rd. An RBI single in the bottom of the 4th made it 4-1 Padres and Osborne was done. But the Cardinals were not about to let the series go  another game. A leadoff homer by Ron Gant made it 4-2 in the 6th. But a one-out triple by John Mabry scored Jordan and a single would bring him home to tie the game at 4. The Cardinals would take the lead in the 7th when Ray Lankford scored on a double play. The Padres were now 6 outs from being eliminated. But when Caminiti hit his second homer of the game to tie it at 5, the Padres were still alive. However, the Cardinals put the game away in the top of the 9th when Jordan hit  a two-run homer that proved to be the series winner. A one-out single by Rickey Henderson in the 9th put the tying run at the plate but nothing would be made of it as Eckersley got his 3rd save in as many tries to win the series. 1996 Major League Baseball All-Star Game