On May 17, 1984 — Alan Wiggins of the San Diego Padres ties a National League record by stealing five bases in one game. Wiggins joins three others who have performed the feat: Dan McGann in 1904, Davey Lopes in 1974, and Lonnie Smith in 1982.

Second baseman Wiggins swiped a club-record five bases and Tony Gwynn added two thefts to give the team seven stolen bases on the day – a team record.

The old team-steal record was six in a nine-inning game, set May 19. 1982 – and Wiggins had a hand in that, swiping three bags.

On Thursday, Wiggins stole second and third in the first inning and second in the fourth, sixth and eighth innings He scored twice, including the winning run after drawing a two-out walk in the eighth, stealing second, advancing to third on catcher Bobby Ramos’ throwing error and scoring on Gwynn’s infield single.
“He had quite a day,” said Padres Manager Dick Williams.

Wiggins, who stolen 120 bases in Class A bail at Lodi. 73 in AAA at Hawaii and 66 for the Padres last season, can’t remember ever having a better day
”1 might have stolen five bases at Lodi.” Wiggins said. “Maybe, but I’m not sure.”
Expos Manager Bill Virdon was sure of one thing, his team had just had its pocket picked by the Padres.

“Three of the steals were off the pitcher. two off the catcher and two we couldn’t do anything about.” Virdon said. “When a club has guys who can run like Wigginstand Gwynn. everything has to go right to catch them stealing.

“Ramos has pretty good success throwing out runners, but he didn’t throw particularly well today. Usually, he’s better ”
Ramos. Gary Carter’s backup man. took the steals against him well.

“I thought I had a shot at a couple of them.” Ramos said. “But you just can’t make a mistake. Even with a good throw, a good base stealer will make it anyway.
“But the better the jump the runner has, the more the catcher tries to rush his throw to make up time.”

Generally, there isn’t much time to make up.