If ever the old saw "momentum is tomorrow night's starting pitcher" applied, it was last night. Tomlin was awful (and that may be understating it), and if the Indians have any designs on still competing this season, I don't know if they can send him out again in five days.
Of course the second but equally disturbing part of last night's debacle was the offense. Diamond has been a good pitcher this season, so this wasn't a scrub shutting down the Tribe bats, but any time a pitcher shuts you out on 98 pitches, you have criticize the at-bats, which in some cases consisted of swinging at the first pitch remotely close to the strike zone. That have may have been a valid strategy against Justin Verlander, who is perhaps the best strikeout pitcher in the game today, but Diamond is a pitch-to-contact guy, and you want to deep into against those kinds of pitchers.
Indians interested in Padres third baseman Headley | indians.com: News
The key takeaway from this news is that the Indians are looking for non-rentals. In other words, players who are under contract or control through at least next season. The I believe the thinking is that Headley would play third base for the remainder of the season, then shift to left field next year, with Lonnie Chisenhall playing at third. Or vice versa, as Headley is rated in most cases as a good defender at third.
Bud Selig says baseball will expand instant replay - ESPN New York
According to Selig, the next two areas that replay would expand to would be foul line calls in play and whether or not a ball is caught. I think replay has a place in baseball, though I would rather have a replay umpire make the call rather than send the on-field umpires down the tunnel to review the play. If there's an umpire already in the press box looking at the play, the call can be reviewed and confirmed or overturned quickly, and the pace of play would not be affected.