Request for better relief settings

Kaat and Hamilton are lefty specialists
Lindy McDaniel is closer against both
Hamilton is max 1to 2 innings.
Hamilton and kAat are both Avoid RHB

Closer Regular means HAL will not hold that RP out for Save only situations, but will use him in other situations as well. Maximize means HAL will ONLY use that RP in a classic save situation, resulting in few IP for that RP.

Normal Relief Setting. If you want quicker action from HAL in regards to pitching changes, set this to Aggressive.

So with these settings, 40% of your bullpen will receive very few IP. Again, that's fine if you are counting on 2-3 strong SPs, but if you are expecting your pen to log a good number of innings, that's working against you. HAL will look for ways to maximize your pen, so if he needs more innings from a RP than you want him to throw, he may leave him in longer than you'd like so it doesn't throw off the other things you are requesting the bullpen usage to do. (Again, I think a lot of your frustration here is that it was an important game, but HAL isn't programmed to recognize this as a playoff game, so he will continue to use your pen as if you have a game tomorrow as well.)

Who is Setup? Middle Man? What kind of SPs do you have? Are you not asking those SPs to do enough?

I'm not suggesting what I'm about to mention is the problem here. However, it is the cause of many misunderstandings on bullpen settings...

Most pitchers should not be given an F-rating (F0-F9). Some managers give an F-rating to most or all pitchers--big mistake! This means that reliever won't come out of the game until they reach the level of fatigue indicated by your F-rating.

(Again, I'm not suggesting this was the problem, but if an F-rating was given to your lefty specialists, it would explain why they remained in the game.)

Nope. No f ratings.

McDaniel had relieved the previous three games, so, HAL wasn't going to bring him four games in a row in due to overwork. Would have been nice had HAL brought in Mikkelsen to replace Kaat (Kaat is supposed to avoid right-handers) or to replace a struggling Humphries (who likely did not have a quick hook setting applied and, thus, took a beating), but, if Mikkelsen has an explicit role whose criteria was not met or, like Humphries, has no role, HAL won't use him in a predictable fashion.