The Milwaukee Brewers' pitching staff has had little trouble getting Shohei Ohtani out in the first two games of the National League Championship Series. The two-time defending National League MVP is 1-for-7 with one single, one walk and three strikeouts in the series.
Including the NL Division Series against the Atlanta Braves and the final five games of the regular season (after he returned from a 15-day injured list stint), Ohtani has only one extra-base hit and no home runs.
In Game 4 of last year's NLCS alone, Ohtani hit three home runs against the Brewers, but he hasn't resembled that player in months.
I forgot he has Ohtani cam in Japan. This looks worse than when he was limping down the steps in the regular season, tbh. pic.twitter.com/OsZ9fwDs11
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) October 13, 2026
Against this backdrop, the Dodgers were at least considering replacing Ohtani in their Game 3 lineup with rookie Josue De Paula. On paper, the merits of the switch are fairly obvious. Manager Dave Roberts announced on Tuesday, however, that Ohtani will be in the lineup for Game 3.
Is that better for the Dodgers, though?
Prior to the Brewers' workout at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday — and before Roberts' announcement — manager Pat Murphy conceded that preparing for De Paula presents a unique challenge.
"This young kid, he's got incredible power, right?" Murphy said of De Paula. "His strike ball is really good. So you don't see that rookie come up with that ability to strike [the] ball. So what do you entice him with?"
De Paula has walked twice in three postseason plate appearances, including once in his only NLCS appearance. The Brewers aren't the only team having trouble figuring out how to get the rookie to chase a pitch. Since his debut in September, De Paula has walked in 13 of his 45 plate appearances while striking out only five times.
"How do you get ahead in the count?" Murphy said. "You've kind of got to decipher that and take into consideration his aggressiveness, knowing that he wants to make an impact on the game."
Murphy and Brewers outfielder Garrett Mitchell both cited Game 4 of the 2025 NLCS as a lingering memory. They know what Ohtani is capable of at the plate.
By limiting him to only soft contact — when he makes contact at all — it's clear the league has mastered the book on how to pitch to this post-injury version of Ohtani.
De Paula, who spent most of the season in the minor leagues, is a relative mystery.
On Wednesday, he'll remain on the bench.
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