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... 80% of your bullpen decisions will suck, too.
On the season, the Seattle bullpen is among the worst in baseball. Houston's pen is probably truly worse ... but only Houston, LAA and Toronto have worse bullpen ERAs, (and Seattle still has a substantial home field pitching edge, even if not as large as it was previously).
Yes, Capps has had major gopheritis. But, if he is EVER going to be an MLB pitcher, he is going to have to remedy that problem. You have a choice of either giving up on him and sending him down (paging Colin Moran!) ... or, you can continue to give him chances to resolve his problems.
So, why not let him resolve his problems in something other than a 1-run game? Because you don't WANT a pitcher who can only pitch in games with 3-run differentials ... regardless of whether it is the 6th or 9th inning.
Since returning from the minors, Capps had pitched 5 times. EVERY use of Capps out of the pen in both July and August (prior to the August 19th HR) had been in a Seattle blowout loss. Capps has the highest K/BB of anyone in the pen other than Farquhar. Is the plan to develop Capps REALLY to simply *NEVER* pitch him in any game that is winnable?
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Hey, I get that fans want to win every game. But, the season was over a long time ago. Winning games is nice ... but the focus SHOULD BE on developing your players for 2014.
Which is going to be more beneficial to the club long term? Capps getting used to pitching in pressure situations in 2013 ... or waiting until 2014 and finding out NEXT YEAR that Capps wilts under pressure and should be ditched?
I'm not saying that's the conclusion to draw from this one outing ... but the question of which pitchers you PLAN on bringing back for 2014 is (at this point in the season), vastly more important to figure out than a victory in any single game.
Oh ... and just fyi ... that was the first HR Capps has allowed since returning from Tacoma, (no HRs in his previous 11 innings).