LOS ANGELES — A year ago, Josue De Paula was part of the TV audience for the Dodgers’ postseason run.
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He has a better view this time.
“I believe I was watching it, if I’m not mistaken, probably in Miami,” De Paula said before Game 2 of the National League Division Series against the Atlanta Braves on Sunday. “I was in Miami watching those games. … To see it in person, I just feel like you can’t replicate it anywhere else. Seeing it on TV and being here is two different worlds.”
As his season with Double-A Tulsa was winding down, De Paula didn’t expect to be seeing postseason baseball up close and in person.
“Take myself home, chill for a little bit. Take probably three weeks off with family and get back to training and stuff,” he said of his October plans before being named to the Dodgers’ NLDS roster.
“I wasn’t expecting myself to be here.”
It only took 11 games in September for the Dodgers to become convinced that he would not only be a valuable addition to the postseason bench but he wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the moment if he had to come in and pinch hit.
“I think what we saw is a really good idea of the strike zone, quality of contact,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “I think that he’s really unflappable, good heartbeat. I think that translates into the postseason.”
That has always been part of his game, De Paula said.
“I always kind of feel like I was a chill individual,” he said. “I try not to get too rushed in my head, and I just try to make it just be in the present. I feel like it just comes naturally to me. I don’t know why, but it does. God-given, you could say.”
De Paula said Roberts gave him the news early in the bye week – though it was obvious before that to everyone else that he would be included on the NLDS roster.
“I was kind of shocked. Yeah, I was shocked,” De Paula said. “I was happy. There was a lot of emotions going on at the same time. Yeah, a lot of thoughts going into it, like envisioning how this is going to be. I’m just going along for the ride and see how everything comes to me.”
De Paula is a work in progress – to say the least – as a defender in the outfield and will only see action this fall if the Dodgers need a left-handed pinch-hitter. It’s not a role with which he is familiar.
“No,” he said. “I probably did it once or twice my whole minor-league career and stuff like that. But just to be my main role, no, but I feel like I’m getting used to it pretty well.”
De Paula did make one pinch-hit appearance for the Dodgers in September and drew a walk.
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“I like the adrenaline of it,” he said. “Yeah, it was good. So it was nothing crazy.”
Some of the veterans on the team are helping with his preparations, said the 21-year-old De Paula, who was honored as the Dodgers’ Branch Rickey Award winner as their Minor League Player of the Year for 2026.
“At the end of the day this is a game, and I just try to make sure everybody’s having fun while we’re doing it,” De Paula said of the youthful energy he has brought to the veteran-laden Dodgers. “Why not kick butt and have fun at the same time, you know what I’m saying? Yeah, just try to make sure everybody is having fun and enjoy themselves.”
ABS BLASTER
Andy Pages’ judgment in using the ABS challenge during the regular season was so poor – he led the team with 14 failed challenges – that he was told he could no longer use them. In the series opener on Saturday afternoon, Pages used one in the second inning on a pitch that was clearly in the strike zone. That left the Dodgers with just one challenge for the rest of the game.
“We talked about obviously a lot this year with Andy’s success rate or lack thereof,” Roberts said. “I didn’t revisit it before Game 1 yesterday, so that’s my fault. I did have a conversation today. So, yeah, we’ve managed that one going forward.”
Does that mean Pages’ ABS privileges have been revoked for the rest of this postseason?
“Yes,” Roberts said.
Pages went 0 for 4 with three strikeouts in Game 1 – a rough start to this postseason for a young player who started last postseason 4 for 50 (.080) and was benched during the World Series.
“He’s in a much better spot than he was last year,” Roberts said of Pages, who returned from a broken bone in his hand and went 6 for 18 with two home runs in the final six games of the regular season. “For me, I just think that – I just want to see him check down a little bit more, chase hits instead of slug. I think that the changeup from Suter yesterday was the tell for me as far as trying to do too much. It was a ball out of hand (and Pages swung for one of his strikeouts).
“I just want to see him kind of slow down a little bit because, again, he came into this postseason really good, had a good week. This past week was great work. Just want to make sure he kind of just checks down a little bit.”
UP NEXT
The series is off on Monday.
Game 3 – Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 14-9, 2.53 ERA) at Braves (LHP Chris Sale, 14-9, 2.16 ERA), Tuesday, 3 p.m. PT, FS1, 570 AM
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