The Milwaukee Brewers want CC Sabathia to be awarded the first retroactive no-hitter in major league history.

After Sabathia tossed a 1-hitter yesterday in which the only hit was an infield single that could have been called an error, the Brewers vowed to send a DVD of the play to Major League Baseball, asking that the call be overturned.

"He accomplished a no-hitter and wasn't given what he deserved. That should have been a no-hitter," manager Ned Yost said after the Brewers' 7-0 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday. "That's a stinking no-hitter we all got cheated from. I feel horrible for CC."

There's nothing the league can do about it officially. 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.

Sabathia limited the Pirates to Andy LaRoche's infield single leading off the fifth inning.

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.

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 as Sabathia was picking the ball up.

"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."

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 Braun said, "There's no question that's a no-hitter."

As it stands, 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.

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 got the only run he needed when Ricky Weeks led off the game with his 11th homer, on a 3-2 pitch by starter Jeff 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.

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.