Was it a no-hitter or not?

Officially, the answer is no, the Pirates were limited to one hit by CC Sabathia -- a fifth-inning single by Andy LaRoche -- in losing their 10th in a row, 7-0, to the Milwaukee Brewers this afternoon before 21,293 at PNC Park.

The Brewers, with the view that the single should have been ruled an error, immediately asked Major League Baseball to review the decision of official scorer Bob Webb.

"That's a joke," Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said. "The scorekeeper absolutely denied Major League Baseball a no-hitter. He threw a hit up on the board before LaRoche had even hit the bag. It's sad. That's sad. I'm upset. I can see if it was borderline, that it could have gone either way. That wasn't even close."

Yost continued, "If you know baseball at all, you know that's a play that has to be made and is made all the time. He rushed it. That's a stinkin' no-hitter that we all got cheated out of. I'm upset. That was my first no-hitter. I could have told my grandkids about it."

"It is what it is," Sabathia said. "Just lookin' at the replay, I think I would have had him."

This was the play: LaRoche squibbed a 2-2 slider -- off a check-swing -- to the left of the mound. Sabathia got there quickly and tried to barehand the ball but dropped it and never made a throw. Within seconds, Webb announced to the press box that it was a single.

Webb's decision, which he explained right after the game, was that it would have taken an "above-ordinary" play for Sabathia to get LaRoche.

"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 that standard effort is required, and that would have taken more than an ordinary effort. The runner was well down the line."

LaRoche, who saw a replay, said, "I'm sure they'll change it to an error. I mean, I obviously didn't hit it very hard, so it really doesn't deserve a hit."

Other Pirates players said that, if Sabathia had tried to make the play with his glove rather than the bare hand, he might have had LaRoche.

Pirates manager John Russell, asked if he thought the play should be ruled an error, flatly replied, "No."

The Pirates have not been no-hit since Aug. 14, 1971, when Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals did so at Three Rivers Stadium.

The Pirates' losing streak is their first to reach double-digits since a 13-gamer June 15-28, 2006.

Their 7-21 August represented the franchise's worst winning percentage -- .250 -- for any full month since a .185 mark in September 1998, as well as the third-worst in the past 57 years.

Jeff Karstens was charged with three runs and five hits over 6 1/3 innings in taking the loss.

Shortstop Jack Wilson left the game after the eighth inning because of a bruised right index finger, the result of a grounder striking his bare hand in the top of that inning.