Dave Roberts will talk to Shohei Ohtani on Tuesday about sitting him for Game 3 of the NLCS, with the Dodgers down 2-0 to Milwaukee.

"Yeah, I mean, obviously it hasn't been good," Roberts told The Athletic after Monday's 7-4 loss in Game 2. "He doesn't feel great."

The manager said Ohtani "has earned that conversation and deserves it." Game 3 is Wednesday in Los Angeles, and the series is slipping fast.

If the Dodgers sit him, rookie Josue De Paula is the top candidate to DH, according to a team source.

Ohtani went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts Monday. His postseason average sits at .150, with a .411 OPS.

The low point came leading off the sixth against lefty JoJo Romero. One of the most feared hitters on the planet squared to bunt.

Josue De Paula's plate discipline could take the DH spot

The slump goes back much further than October. He hasn't homered since Aug. 18 and is 14-for-90 since then.

Health is the backdrop. He spent roughly two weeks on the IL with left knee and right biceps pain before the regular season ended.

"I haven't been able to get a good grasp of the root cause of all this," Ohtani said ahead of the NLDS, through interpreter Will Ireton.

The swing shows it. He's rarely pulling the ball or hitting it hard, and his opposite-field single in Game 1 left the bat at 74 mph.

De Paula debuted in mid-September and has fewer than 50 big-league plate appearances. His elite plate discipline earned him spots on both playoff rosters, and he's worked two key walks as a pinch-hitter.

Can a team really bench a superstar this late? It can when he's this compromised, and any final call will also involve president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.

Sit him. A hitter who can't catch up to fastballs and is showing bunt in a must-win stretch isn't helping, no matter the name on the back of the jersey.

Playing a hurt star is like driving on a spare tire because it came with a luxury car. The badge looks great, but you're still limping down the highway.

Blue Jays fans watched this Dodgers group beat them in Game 7 last fall. Seeing it this vulnerable now is a strange kind of closure.

Roberts gets his answer Tuesday. If Ohtani sits and De Paula delivers, it's a gutsy call that changed the series, and if the Dodgers lose Wednesday anyway, they'll be one loss from elimination.