From Last Night:

• Kris Medlen cruises past the Fish in Miami
• Cliff Lee gets help from his offense, but comes up one out shy of a complete game in aa 8-3 win over the Mets
• Pettitte needs little help, but gets a lot in 14-1 win over the Indians
• The Nationals hang on for dear life in an 8-7 win over the White Sox

What I’m Watching Today:

• Matt Moore faces the Rangers in a redux of his 2011 ALDS Game 1 start (2p Eastern)
• Barry Zito looks to build on his strong first start against the Rockies (345p Eastern)
• Kyle Lohse will try to follow his strong first start against the Cubs (8p Eastern)

The Big Question:

• How awesome was Don Kelly’s catch last night?

It happened after we went to press on Monday night, but I can’t help but comment on what happened in the final at bat of Monday’s game between the Rangers and Rays. Down one, with one on and two out, Ben Zobrist stepped to the plate to face Joe Nathan. Marty Foster gave us this beauty of a strikezone.

Jump over to Jeff Sullivan’s article at Fangraphs for .gifs of the pitch and how awful it looked it real time. Foster admitted after the game that he missed the call. We’re speaking specifically about #6 above (but #1 was bad too!). It’s hard to be too critical of MLB umpires give the state of officiating in high profile events in other sports like the NCAA title game, but this is just one of the many reasons why we need expanded replay in baseball. There are a lot of calls that we could get right if we let the umpires take another look. Not only would it help us get calls right, but it would take pressure off the umpires and remove a lot of tension that comes after blown calls. Heck, there were two clear ones on Opening Night in Houston and another really bad one (that the crew chief overturned) in Detroit this weekend. A lot of this is avoidable, so let’s avoid it!