Confounding Padres inconsistency spoils Joe Musgrove's return from injured list

Tuesday should have been a day of celebration for the San Diego Padres. They were up against a Reds team that has struggled to do much of anything right other than letting Elly De La Cruz run wild and hope that is enough. More importantly, it also marked the return of Joe Musgrove from the IL.

Musgrove went on the shelf with inflammation in his elbow in early May which is always a concern especially with all the pitcher injuries lately, but both Musgrove and the Padres were confident throughout that he would be fine after getting some rest. The Padres remained careful with him on Tuesday as he only went three innings, and while he did show a bit of rust, he was otherwise quite effective.

Unfortunately, the Padres' offense decided to take the day off for the second game in a row and got shut out by Andrew Abbott and Co. to spoil Musgrove's return.

Padres' weak offensive effort dooms them in shutout loss to Reds

Every team has off nights at the plate and Tuesday definitely qualified for the Padres. Coming off a tough and well-earned series win over the Braves, San Diego looked gassed against the Reds and only managed five singles for the entire game. Luis Arraez had a pair of them at the top of the lineup to try and set the table, but San Diego only ended up with one plate appearance with a runner in scoring position all night long which is pretty dreadful.

Making matters worse, the Padres' defense wasn't sharp, either. An error on a pickoff by the rusty Musgrove in the second followed by an error by catcher Luis Campusano on a play at the plate, which should have been an out, gave the Reds a free run.

Ultimately, this is just one of those games that the Padres will have to shake off and forget ever happened. The important thing is that Musgrove does appear to be healthy, and assuming he can go deeper into games moving forward and the offense can clean some things up, the Padres should be in a better spot here soon.

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