Today In Brewer History: No-No Nieves

On this day in 1987 lefthander Juan Nieves made his second start of the season for the Brewers, RIFT Platinum who were 8-0 at the time. Nieves had just turned 22 the previous week but was already making the 35th start of his major league career. As a 21 year old in 1986, Nieves had thrown 184.2 innings and posted a 4.92 ERA. The previous year, he'd pitched 188.2 innings as a 20 year old between AA and AAA.

Nieves' previous outing wasn't very good: He allowed six runs on eight hits to the Rangers over 5.1 innings, but picked up the win anyway in the Brewers' 11-8 victory. He more than made up for the weak outing this time out, however, rift gold as he threw the only no-hitter in Brewer history. Glenn Braggs, Dale Sveum and Greg Brock all homered in the game as the Brewers won 7-0 to move to 9-0 on the season.

Nieves walked five batters in the game but allowed nothing else, striking out seven. RIFT Platinum It was the fifth complete game of his young career, and his fourth shutout.

Unfortunately, at 22 years old Nieves was already nearing the end of the road. Rift Gold Following the no hitter, he pitched just 57 more games before an arm injury ended his major league career at age 23. If a 20-23 year old pitcher was handled like Nieves today and got injured, it's possible his manager would be publicly executed.

These days, Nieves is spending his fourth season as the bullpen coach for the White Sox.

With help from the B-Ref Play Index, happy birthday today to:


1996-01 Brewer Jeromy Burnitz, who turns 42.
1977 Brewer Barry Cort, TERA Gold who turns 55.
1964 Milwaukee Brave Ed Bailey, who would have turned 80