Photo credit: Scott Paulus/Milwaukee Brewers
Aaron Hill
By now you’ve probably heard, and some fans (not Eugene or Ryan, though) even saw it: Aaron Hill had a night for the ages on Saturday, hitting three home runs and driving in seven in the Brewers’ come-from-behind, extra inning win over the Reds. If you’d been watching the game at my house, you would’ve heard the following two questions in rapid succession while Hill’s tenth inning grand slam was in the air:
“Did he get it?”
“Is that eight RBI?”
The answers to those questions were yes and no, respectively. Hill’s go-ahead slam gave him seven runs batted in for the game, meaning he tied but did not break a franchise record that has stood for nearly 46 years now. Nonetheless, Hill has earned a place in Brewers history alongside some of these unlikely holders of single-game records:
Ted Kubiak’s seven RBI
Let’s start with the record Hill tied on Saturday. Middle infielder Ted Kubiak played 10 MLB seasons as a member of five franchises (including two tours of duty with the Kansas City/Oakland A’s), but never hit more than four home runs or collected more than 41 RBI in a season. Yet somehow, on July 18, 1970 he drove in seven runs on four hits in a 10-5 Brewers win over the Red Sox. It was one of just three four-hit games in his career, and the only time in his 977-game MLB career he ever drove in more than four runs.
Kubiak held this record all by himself for over 30 years before Jose Hernandez tied it in 2001. Counting Hill’s game on Saturday, it’s now been done by a Brewer nine times.
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Kevin Reimer’s six hits
Kevin Reimer’s brief Brewers career is probably only memorable for two reasons:
1) The Brewers acquired him in a 1992 trade that sent future four-time All Star Dante Bichette to the Rockies, and
2) On August 24, 1993 he tied a franchise record with six hits in a 7-6, 13 inning win over the A’s.
Reimer also drew an intentional walk in that contest, so he was actually on base seven times (tying another franchise record) overall. Reimer doubled off of two future Hall of Famers, Goose Gossage and Dennis Eckersley, in back-to-back at bats in this game.
Reimer played in just 17 more MLB games after this one, collecting just eight more hits. He spent the 1994 and 1995 seasons playing for Daiei in Japan’s Pacific League, and his 26 home runs there in 1994 were the most he ever hit in a professional season.
The five cycles hit by Brewers batters not named Yount or Molitor
Let’s acknowledge, of course, that the cycle is a novelty accomplishment. Certainly, connecting for a single, double, triple and home run is a noteworthy event, but it’s actually less valuable than, for example, two home runs and two doubles, an event which would draw significantly less fanfare. With that said, the list of the seven Brewers who have done it includes two Hall of Famers (Robin Yount and Paul Molitor) and five guys who fell well short of that mark.
· Mike Hegan might have been the best of the five players on this list, but his most productive and everyday playing days were well behind him when he became the first Brewer ever to hit for the cycle on September 3, 1976. His triple in the fourth inning of this game was the last one of his MLB career.
· Charlie Moore started an odd trend of Brewers catchers cycling when he did it on October 1, 1980. He hit just two triples and two home runs that season, but managed to get one of each and a single and double in the same contest.
· After Yount and Molitor’s aforementioned cycles in 1988 and 1991, respectively, there was a 13-year gap before another catcher, Chad Moeller, did it in 2004. Moeller, a lifetime .226 hitter with .352 slugging, raised his career slugging percentage by 12 points that day.
· Like Hegan, Jody Gerut was in the final run of his MLB career when he cycled for the Brewers on May 8, 2010. The triple and home run he hit in that game were the last of each in his MLB career, which ended just 14 days later.
· No Brewer has hit for the cycle since George Kottaras became the third catcher to do it on September 3, 2011. A fun fact: Since the Brewers came into existence in 1969 just seven MLB catchers have hit for the cycle. Three did it for Milwaukee.
Juan Nieves’ no-hitter
Of course, the achievements listed above are all significantly overshadowed by Juan Nieves’ legendary outing. On April 15, 1987, you likely know that Nieves threw the only no-hitter in Brewers franchise history.
Nieves was only 22 years old at the time of the outing, making just his second start of the season. We don’t have an official pitch count for the game (it didn’t become an official stat until years later), but we do know that Nieves faced 31 batters in the game and pitched 195 2/3 innings that season, bringing his MLB career total to 380 1/3 before his 23rd birthday. Nieves pitched his final MLB game in 1988, when an arm injury prematurely ended his career.
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