First, I've never listed 6 pitchers as starters so I don't know if the system does anything funky or not when it has this many. I do know 4 or 5 starters keeps if fairly stable.

Since you were behind, and the fact that Shields had 5 days to rest him, I can see why he was left in game 2.

I'm not sure why Schmidt came out after 5. Short relievers aren't always used on a best available basis, sometimes it likes to use a lefty vs lefty, or righty vs righty in short relief. Being it was early, that might be why Davis was used. I'd set him at long relief or as a starter next time, so that he can't be used on the road. It might be wise in the future to not even have him on the roster.

In the playoffs you can get by with 10 pitchers easily. Go with your best 11 if you want an extra pitcher on the roster.

Where do you have your setting for bullpen? I'd put it at the 1st spot, listed as conservative, but what it would mean is the robot would make frequent bullpen changes, usually giving you a better chance for matchups.

Whats funny is some owners think that the robot is given unfair advantages and that more road games are won. I disagree with this. Like any AI in most games, this one is so so. The best you can do is make sure that you don't have any pitchers that suck on your roster, thus it can't use one of those players.

Positives of the computer is it does well with stealing, pinch hitting, bunting, etc. It will also pull your starter so you can start him every 4th game(every third game in the playoffs.