Nick Lodolo's recurring blister casts doubt on his Tuesday start for the Reds

Nick Lodolo is penciled in to start Tuesday night for the Cincinnati Reds against the San Diego Padres, but a recurring blister on his throwing hand — tied to his breaking ball grip — has already produced two IL stints this season, per Yahoo Sports. Whether he takes the mound at Great American Ball Park is the question hanging over the series.

What happened

Yahoo Sports reports that Lodolo has been dealing with a recurring blister on his throwing hand, with the issue traced to his breaking ball grip. The condition has sent him to the injured list twice this season. He is currently listed as Cincinnati's probable starter for Tuesday, September 1, against the Padres, but the blister's history makes that listing worth watching rather than taking at face value.

The backdrop for Tuesday's game is a Padres club that arrived in Cincinnati with something to prove. San Diego had just been swept by the Tampa Bay Rays before Monday's series opener, and the club responded with a commanding win, per Yahoo Sports. The Padres scored five runs, four of them in a fourth inning that unraveled quickly for Reds starter Brady Singer, who surrendered six consecutive hits before recording an out on a bunt pop-out and eventually escaping on a 5-4-3 double play. Michael King then threw six scoreless innings, and Kyle Hart and Wandy Peralta closed it out. That is the offense and pitching staff Lodolo would be asked to navigate Tuesday — assuming he starts.

Why it matters

A blister is one of the more frustrating injuries in baseball precisely because it sits at the intersection of mechanics and biology. For a pitcher whose breaking ball grip is the reported source of the problem, the concern is not just availability but effectiveness: a blister that is present but not yet serious enough to warrant a stint can still affect command and spin, even if the pitcher takes the ball. Two IL stints in a single season from the same issue signals that this is not something that has been fully resolved.

Under general league rules, pitchers are subject to the 15-day injured list rather than the 10-day version available to position players, which means any return to the IL would carry a longer minimum absence. The Reds are also entering September, when rosters expand from 26 to 28 players — a window that gives clubs more flexibility to carry an extra arm if Lodolo's availability becomes uncertain day to day. That expanded depth is a quiet but meaningful backstop for a rotation managing a recurring issue this late in the season.

Is Lodolo actually starting Tuesday?

He is listed as the probable starter, per the schedule data on file. But Yahoo Sports' report flags the recurring nature of the blister as an ongoing concern rather than a resolved one. The Reds have not issued any announcement changing his status as of the reporting. Fans checking the lineup card Tuesday should treat "probable" as exactly that — a projection, not a guarantee.

Where the club stands

The Reds enter Tuesday at 67-74 (.475), sitting 5th in the NL Central, 20.5 games behind the division leader. Their Wild Card position is rank 8, 7.0 games relative to the cut line. They are coming off a loss — a streak of L1 — after Monday's series opener went to San Diego.

Those standings numbers tell a story that is largely separate from Lodolo's health: Cincinnati is not in a postseason race, which changes the calculus on how aggressively the club might push a pitcher through a recurring injury. A team fighting for October has different risk tolerance than one playing out the string in fifth place. The Reds' situation is the latter, and that context matters when weighing how the club might handle a blister that has already required two trips to the injured list.

The remaining schedule at Great American Ball Park this week includes Tuesday and Wednesday against San Diego — with Brandon Williamson listed as Cincinnati's probable for Wednesday against Casey Mize — followed by a Friday home game against the Milwaukee Brewers, where Rhett Lowder is the probable against Shane Drohan.

None of those games carry postseason weight for Cincinnati, but they matter considerably to the Padres, who are described by Yahoo Sports as fighting their way back into the postseason while attempting to hold off the Arizona Diamondbacks. That asymmetry is worth noting: the Reds are playing out a difficult season while their opponents this week are treating every game as consequential. The dynamic tends to produce interesting baseball even when only one side has something riding on the outcome.

What we don't know yet

Yahoo Sports' report does not specify whether Lodolo has been examined recently, whether the blister has flared again ahead of Tuesday's start, or whether the Reds have any contingency plan in place if he is unable to go. The two IL stints are reported facts; the current status of the blister is described as a recurring concern, not a resolved one. No timetable, no diagnosis beyond the blister itself, and no club announcement has been reported.

The report carries a degree of uncertainty — this is a credible but not fully certain account of the situation, and the Reds have not publicly addressed Lodolo's Tuesday availability in the material available here.

What to watch

The most immediate thing to monitor is whether Lodolo actually takes the ball Tuesday night. If he is scratched or replaced in the probable listing before first pitch, that would suggest the blister has become an active issue again rather than a managed one. If he does start, the early innings — and specifically how his breaking ball is behaving — will tell observers something about where things stand physically, even without a formal update from the club.

Beyond Tuesday, the pattern of two IL stints from the same injury in the same season is the kind of thing that tends to resurface. September's expanded roster rules give Cincinnati some cushion to manage Lodolo carefully if needed, but the underlying issue, per Yahoo Sports, has not shown a clean resolution. The Padres, for their part, will be sending Randy Vásquez to the mound Tuesday — and after Monday's performance, they will arrive at Great American Ball Park with momentum and a reason to keep pressing.