Javier Assad Injury: Twirls 3.2 innings at Triple-A

Assad (oblique) struck out two and allowed two runs (one earned) on four hits and one walk across 3.2 innings in his rehab start Wednesday with Triple-A Iowa.

After tossing three scoreless frames in his first rehab outing July 24 in the rookie-level Arizona Complex League, Assad jumped up a few levels for his second outing. The right-hander got stretched out to 53 pitches (32 strikes) in the start and is expected to build upon that workload when he makes his next rehab appearance with Iowa on Wednesday, per MLB.com reports. Though Assad still appears more likely than not to work in long relief or stick around in Iowa's rotation once he's activated from the 60-day injured list, he could be needed to make starts with the big club if he ends up beating Jameson Taillon (calf) and Michael Soroka (shoulder) back from the IL.