Chicago Cubs' National League Wild Card Series Matchup Set

It has been a long time since Chicago and San Diego saw each other on the field. The Cubs and Padres played their entire six-game regular season series in April, with each team winning two out of three at home.

For an idea of how long ago those games were, Ryan Pressly earned a save and a win against San Diego this year. He lost his grip on the closer role in May and was released on August 1, a day after being designated for assignment.

Left-handers Shota Imanaga and Matthew Boyd have both made two starts against the Padres, with Imanaga giving up just one earned run in 12 1/3 innings. But both teams look quite different now than they did five-plus months ago. Most notably, Cubs rookie Cade Horton, who has been among the best pitchers in Major League Baseball since the All-Star Break, had yet to make his debut.

The Padres are making their fourth postseason appearance in six years, an unprecedented run of success given their franchise's history. San Diego has plenty of star power offensively, led by Fernando Tatis Jr. and Manny Machado, as well as mainstays like Xander Bogaerts, Jake Cronenworth and Jackson Merrill.

Under president of baseball operations and general manager A.J. Preller, the Padres were aggressive as usual at the trade deadline, acquiring flame-throwing reliever Mason Miller from the Athletics and getting both outfielder Ramon Laureano and first baseman Ryan O'Hearn from the Baltimore Orioles.

Although San Diego was unable to run down the Dodgers in the division race, the Padres pushed the defending World Series champions and have remained one of the decade's most consistently successful clubs.

Cubs, Padres have notable playoff history

It has been 41 years since Chicago met San Diego in the 1984 NL Championship Series. That season was a historic one for both franchises — the Cubs were making their first postseason appearance since 1945, while the Padres won their first-ever division title that year.

Chicago opened the series with a 13-0 win at home behind ace Rick Sutcliffe and a barrage of home runs, then won Game 2 as well to move to the brink of its first pennant in 39 years. But after staving off elimination in Game 3 at home, San Diego forced a decisive fifth game on Steve Garvey's walk-off homer in Game 4.

With Sutcliffe on the mound again, the Cubs were in good shape early in Game 5, jumping out to an early three-run lead. In the bottom of the seventh, though, first baseman Leon Durham's infamous error opened the floodgates for a four-run Padres rally as San Diego advanced to the World Series, where the Padres fell to the Detroit Tigers in five games.