1978 San Diego Padres season

The 1978 San Diego Padres season was the tenth in franchise history. They finished in fourth place in the National League West with a record of 84–78, eleven games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. This was the Padres' first-ever winning season.

1978 San Diego Padres
LeagueNational League
DivisionWest
BallparkSan Diego Stadium
CitySan Diego, California
Record84–78 (.519)
Divisional place4th
OwnersRay Kroc
General managersBob Fontaine
ManagersRoger Craig
TelevisionXETV
(Jerry Gross, Al Schuff)
RadioKOGO
(Jerry Coleman, Bob Chandler)
← 1977 Seasons 1979 →
Pitcher Randy Jones in 1978

Offseason

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Regular season

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In 1978, the Padres achieved their first winning season in team history, finishing 84–78 (.519), six games over .500. On June 9, the one-third point of the season, the team stood at 23–31 (.426). The last two-thirds of the season, they went 61–47 (.565), which included a ten-game winning streak from July 25 to August 4. The Padres were also extremely impressive at home that season, going 51–30 (.630).

Notable contributing players:

Gaylord Perry became the second Padre in three seasons to win the National League Cy Young Award, leading the league in wins (21) and winning percentage (.778). Rollie Fingers won the league's Rolaids Relief Award, leading the league in saves (37). As for position players, OF Dave Winfield lead the team with his best offensive season to date (.308, 24 HR, 97 RBI, 21 SB, 151 OPS+). SS Ozzie Smith finished 2nd in the National League Rookie of the Year voting (40 SB). Along with their notable contributions, all 4 players have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Along with the 1979 season, this is the only time in franchise history that the Padres had 4 future Hall-of-Famers on their roster.

Opening Day lineup

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Season standings

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NL West
Team W L Pct. GB Home Road
Los Angeles Dodgers 95 67 .586 54‍–‍27 41‍–‍40
Cincinnati Reds 92 69 .571 49‍–‍31 43‍–‍38
San Francisco Giants 89 73 .549 6 50‍–‍31 39‍–‍42
San Diego Padres 84 78 .519 11 50‍–‍31 34‍–‍47
Houston Astros 74 88 .457 21 50‍–‍31 24‍–‍57
Atlanta Braves 69 93 .426 26 39‍–‍42 30‍–‍51

Record vs. opponents

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Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
Team ATL CHC CIN HOU LAD MON NYM PHI PIT SD SF STL
Atlanta 5–7 6–12 8–10 5–13 5–7 6–6 8–4 2–10 8–10 11–7 5–7
Chicago 7–5 7–5 6–6 4–8 7–11 11–7 4–14 7–11 7–5 4–8 15–3
Cincinnati 12–6 5–7 11–7 9–9 8–4 7–5 7–5 4–7 9–9 12–6 8–4
Houston 10–8 6–6 7–11 7–11 6–6 7–5 6–6 4–8 8–10 6–12 7–5
Los Angeles 13–5 8–4 9–9 11–7 8–4 7–5 7–5 7–5 9–9 11–7 5–7
Montreal 7–5 11–7 4–8 6–6 4–8 8–10 9–9 7–11 6–6 5–7 9–9
New York 6–6 7–11 5–7 5–7 5–7 10–8 6–12 7–11 5–7 3–9 7–11
Philadelphia 4-8 14–4 5–7 6–6 5–7 9–9 12–6 11–7 8–4 6–6 10–8
Pittsburgh 10–2 11–7 7–4 8–4 5–7 11–7 11–7 7–11 5–7 4–8 9–9
San Diego 10–8 5–7 9–9 10–8 9–9 6–6 7–5 4–8 7–5 8–10 9–3
San Francisco 7–11 8–4 6–12 12–6 7–11 7–5 9–3 6–6 8–4 10–8 9–3
St. Louis 7–5 3–15 4–8 5–7 7–5 9–9 11–7 8–10 9–9 3–9 3–9


Notable transactions

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Roster

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1978 San Diego Padres
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

Coaches

Player stats

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Batting

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Starters by position

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Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Rick Sweet 88 226 50 .221 1 11
1B Gene Tenace 142 401 90 .224 16 61
2B Fernando González 101 320 80 .250 2 29
SS Ozzie Smith 159 590 152 .258 1 46
3B Bill Almon 138 405 102 .252 0 21
LF Gene Richards 154 555 171 .308 4 45
CF Derrel Thomas 128 352 80 .227 3 26
RF Dave Winfield 158 587 181 .308 24 97

Other batters

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Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Oscar Gamble 126 375 103 .275 7 47
Jerry Turner 106 225 63 .280 8 37
Broderick Perkins 62 217 52 .240 2 33
Tucker Ashford 75 155 38 .245 3 26
George Hendrick 36 111 27 .243 3 8
Dave Roberts 54 97 21 .216 1 7
Barry Evans 24 90 24 .267 0 4
Don Reynolds 57 87 22 .253 0 10
Chuck Baker 44 58 12 .207 0 3
Mike Champion 32 53 12 .226 0 4
Bob Davis 19 40 8 .200 0 2
Jim Beswick 17 20 1 .050 0 0
Jim Wilhelm 10 19 7 .368 0 4
Tony Castillo 5 8 1 .125 0 1

Pitching

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Starting pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Gaylord Perry 37 260.2 21 6 2.73 154
Randy Jones 37 253.0 13 14 2.88 71
Bob Owchinko 36 202.1 10 13 3.56 94
Eric Rasmussen 27 146.1 12 10 4.06 59

Other pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Bob Shirley 50 166.0 8 11 3.69 102
Dave Freisleben 12 26.2 0 3 6.08 16
Mark Wiley 4 7.2 1 0 5.87 1
Steve Mura 5 7.2 0 2 11.74 5

Relief pitchers

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Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Rollie Fingers 67 6 13 37 2.52 72
John D'Acquisto 45 4 3 10 2.13 104
Mark Lee 56 5 1 2 3.28 31
Mickey Lolich 20 2 1 1 1.56 13
Dan Spillner 17 1 0 0 4.56 16
Dennis Kinney 7 0 1 0 6.43 2
Dave Wehrmeister 4 1 0 0 6.14 2
Juan Eichelberger 3 0 0 0 10.80 2

Awards and honors

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All-Stars

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1978 Major League Baseball All-Star Game

Farm system

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Level Team League Manager
AAA Hawaii Islanders Pacific Coast League Dick Phillips
AA Amarillo Gold Sox Texas League Glenn Ezell
A Reno Silver Sox California League Eddie Watt
A-Short Season Walla Walla Padres Northwest League Cliff Ditto

[11]

References

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