I think he wanted at least one inning out of him. He is trying to see if there's anything left. Clearly, Pom's tank is on empty. Any good outing is thanks to the RNG gods.
Maybe. He also has the propensity to just completely melt down. I'm not sure how he would hold up in the playoffs. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.fcgi?id=pomerdr01&t=p&post=1