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Brandon Sproat part of AAA no-hitter; Tyler Black saves the day
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- Brandon Sproat part of AAA no-hitter; Tyler Black saves the day
For the first time since 2017, the Nashville Sounds delivered a no-hitter with a seven-inning, 2-0 victory over the Norfolk Tides on Aug. 23.
Brandon Sproat (three innings) and Tate Kuehner (four innings) authored the hitless outing, and outfielder Tyler Black made a leaping grab at the wall for the final out of the contest to preserve the lead and the no-no.
Sproat, who has spent most of the season pitching for the Milwaukee Brewers , threw the first three innings, striking out five and not walking anyone in facing the minimum. Tate Kuehner worked the final four, allowing one walk with four strikeouts.
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The game was only seven innings as the first part of a doubleheader, with a seven-inning nightcap to follow. The game has been a long time coming, with Friday's regularly scheduled game and the Saturday doubleheader both washed out by inclement weather.
There were still some anxious moments in the seventh, when Kuehner issued a walk and hit a batter ahead of José Barrero, who hit a long fly ball to left field that Black tracked down before crashing into the wall for the final out.
Infielder Ethan Murray homered leading off the fifth for the first Sounds run of the game, and rehabbing Sal Frelick doubled ahead of a Blake Burke RBI groundout to bring home the other.
Tyler Black makes a sliding catch for the Nashville Sounds earlier in the 2026 season. Black's catch against the wall on Aug. 23, 2026, marked the final out of a seven-inning no-hitter in Norfolk.
Kuehner, a left-hander selected in the 2023 draft, missed a huge chunk of the season after landing on the injured list May 20 and not reappearing until Aug. 16, when he pitched 2 ⅓ innings and allowed two unearned runs on three hits. Then came this, his first hitless outing of the season. The 25-year-old has a 5.01 ERA this year and would have been a contender to make an appearance in the Milwaukee bullpen this season had he not been sidelined.
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Sproat spent most of the season in the Brewers rotation, sporting a 3-7 record and 5.27 ERA in 21 games before the club got healthy enough that it could afford to send him to Class AAA.
His first outing with Nashville was rough, when he allowed six earned runs on eight hits in four innings, but he bounced back to throw five one-hit innings Aug. 15, with eight strikeouts to three walks.
Thus, in his last eight innings, he has allowed one hit with 13 strikeouts and three walks. Sproat threw only 40 pitches in his three-frame outing against the Tides on Aug. 23.
Black has scuffled a bit offensively at Nashville, with a .712 OPS but a quality .356 on-base percentage and 20 stolen bases. He's played only sparingly in Milwaukee this year and has been a constant search for a home on defense, but he seems to be settled in left field with 60 games at the position this season.
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The Sounds were not part of the Brewers organization in 2017, and instead affiliated with the Oakland Athletics, when Chris Smith, Sean Doolittle, Tucker Healy and Simon Castro conspired on a traditional no-hitter over nine innings in a 4-0 win over Omaha.
The Brewers' last minor-league no-hitters came in 2021, with three different instances, starting when the Class AA Biloxi Shuckers tossed a combined no-no May 15 featuring Ethan Small, Zach Vennaro, Nathan Kirby and Matt Hardy.
At Class High A Wisconsin, Freisis Adames and Taylor Floyd combined on a seven-inning no-hitter May 29, and Justin Bullock and Carlos Luna combined on an nine-inning no-hitter June 10. Oddly enough, Wisconsin was on the wrong end of a no-hitter against Quad Cities just eight days after the second no-no, on June 18.
Tate Kuehner throws a pitch for the Nashville Sounds in 2026. The left-hander worked four of the seven no-hit innings for Nashville in a win over Norfolk on Aug. 23, 2026.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brandon Sproat part of AAA no-hitter; Tyler Black saves the day
