Sabathia loses no-hitter on controversial call.

[Jetkid94]

PITTSBURGH -- To the Milwaukee Brewers, CC Sabathia pitched the no-hitter that wasn't.

Even if Sabathia may have been the only player in their clubhouse who wasn't upset that the best-pitched game of his career will go down as a one-hitter.

Sabathia limited the Pirates to Andy LaRoche's infield single leading off the fifth inning, on a play Milwaukee manager Ned Yost argued was an error on the pitcher, and the Brewers beat Pittsburgh 7-0 Sunday for their eighth victory in nine games.

Sabathia (9-0) pitched the majors' fourth one-hitter this season and couldn't have come much closer to a no-hitter, with no Pirates batter except for LaRoche threatening to get a hit during the team's 10th consecutive loss.

"He accomplished a no-hitter and wasn't given what he deserved. That should have been a no-hitter," Yost said. "That's a stinking no-hitter we all got cheated from. I feel horrible for CC."

The Brewers said they plan to send a DVD of the play and send it to Major League Baseball, asking that the call be overturned. However, according to baseball's rulebook, only the official scorer may change a judgment scoring call.

If official scorer Bob Webb were to decide to change the call, it would be the first time in major league history a no-hitter was awarded retroactively.

LaRoche's softly hit grounder on a 2-2 pitch rolled about 45 feet between the plate and the mound before Sabathia picked it up barehanded, only to drop it. The ball may have been hit too softly for Sabathia to get LaRoche at first, even if he had made the play cleanly.

Bob Webb, a major league official scorer for 20 seasons, immediately ruled a hit, explaining he watched LaRoche out of the batter's box and the runner was two-thirds of the way down the line before Sabathia picked the ball up. Yost and several Brewers players disagreed -- strongly.

"That's a joke. That wasn't even close. Whoever the scorekeeper was absolutely denied major league baseball a nice no-hitter right there," Yost said. "They threw hit up on the board even before LaRoche hit the bag. That's a play CC makes easily, throws him out by 10 feet -- to me it's a no-brainer.

"That's sad. It really is sad."

The Brewers' Ryan J. Braun said, "There's no question that's a no-hitter."

Despite the Brewers' protests, the play in question is routinely called a hit and fielders often get angry when they are called for errors on easier plays. The Associated Press polled eight writers who have reported on the majors for 10 years or more, and six would have called it a hit.

Webb wouldn't comment on Yost's remarks, but said the play did not meet the rule book criteria for an error.

"The way the ball came off the bat, it was spinning, and it went to the left of the mound with a left-handed pitcher going to get it. It's a difficult play," Webb said. "The definition requires standard effort, and that would have taken more than an ordinary effort. The runner was well down the line."

Also, Sabathia pitched with almost no pressure with a multiple-run lead in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, which wouldn't have been the case if he had a no-hitter going and every late-innings pitch would have been critical.

Sabathia accepted the scoring call calmly, blaming himself for LaRoche getting on.

"The ball was still rolling and I probably should have picked it up with my glove. We probably wouldn't be having this conversation," Sabathia said. "I think if I pick it up with my glove, I get him."

Sabathia wouldn't speculate whether he would have gotten LaRoche if he had picked the ball up cleanly barehanded.

Maybe Sabathia felt he could make a play as he did the inning before, when he caught Nate McLouth's line drive up the middle with the palm of his right hand and flipped the ball to first to turn a double play.

LaRoche was looking for a changeup but got a slider -- the first one he'd seen from Sabathia in two at-bats -- and barely got his bat on it.

"I just got it on the ground," he said. "I'd like to think it was a hit. From a selfish standpoint I'd like it to be a hit, but you could make a case either way. But I'm hitting .160 -- I need every hit I can get."

Sabathia, 3-0 in five career starts against the Pirates, struck out 11 and walked three and faced only 29 batters, two above the minimum. He threw 79 of his 117 pitches for strikes.

Sabathia's previous low-hit game was a three-hitter, accomplished three times, including a 3-0 win over the Cardinals on July 23. His 9-0 record since being dealt by Cleveland to Milwaukee on July 7 matches Doyle Alexander's 9-0 with Detroit in 1987 as the best of any pitcher traded at midseason in the last 90 seasons.

"He's been dominant since he came over and, hopefully, he and rest of the team will take us to the promised land," Bill Hall said.

Three of Sabathia's nine wins are shutouts, and he allowed one earned run in three others. His ERA is 1.43 for the Brewers.

"It's fun to watch him pitch, unfortunately he was on the other side," Pirates starter Jeff Karstens said.

Sabathia got the only run he needed when Rickie Weeks led off the game with his 11th homer, on a 3-2 pitch by Karstens. Karstens (2-4) is 0-4 since pitching 7 1/3 perfect innings against Arizona on Aug. 6, though two of the three runs against him Sunday came after he left the game.

Milwaukee, finishing its best month since September 1992, led 1-0 until Hall doubled in two runs against reliever Tyler Yates in the seventh. The Brewers scored four times against three relievers in the eighth, with Gabe Kapler's single off Sean Burnett scoring two runs. Burnett also threw a run-scoring wild pitch.

The Brewers finished off a three-game sweep -- they've won their last nine against the last-place Pirates -- and have won 18 of 23. They went 20-7 in August, a year after falling apart while going 9-18 for the month.

The Pirates hadn't lost as many as 10 in a row since dropping 13 consecutive games from June 15-28, 2006.

The other one-hitters this season were by James Shields of Tampa Bay against the Angels on May 9, Matt Garza of the Rays against Florida on June 26 and the Dodgers' Hiroki Kuroda against Atlanta on July 7. Jon Lester of the Red Sox pitched the majors' only no-hitter this season, beating Kansas City on May 19.

Notes

Milwaukee (80-56) is 24 games above .500 for the first time since September 1992.

The Brewers are 11-1 with nine consecutive wins against Pittsburgh, with three games remaining in Milwaukee in late September. They are 5-1 in PNC Park, where they were 22-43 before this season.

Sabathia is 12-0 in his last 16 starts, counting his final five with Cleveland. His last loss was June 5.

Pirates SS Jack Wilson was lifted in the ninth with a bruised right index finger.

AP NEWS

The Associated Press News Service

Copyright 2007-2008, The Associated Press, All Rights Reserved

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I cant copy links, but you can read the article on cbssportsline.com.

I just saw the video of the play, and C.C would have gotten Laroche by at least 3 feet. Horrible call by the scoring manager. this sucks for C.C and for baseball.

[anskyruben]

This guy better be a Yankee in 09

[GangGreen]

Hopefully, we need him! We're in our dark ages right now. But, yeah, that was an error.

[Blackout]

bad call

[Sharrow]

Pretty pitiful that the only Pirate employee that could get a hit off of Sabathia was the scorekeeper. 90 losses here we come!