One of the things that troubled Javier Assad in his five previous outings was walks. He had walked 10 in 21u2153 innings prior to Sunday, a pretty high walk rate. In those five appearances (four starts), he’d get in trouble early but pitch his way out of it, which resulted in a 2.53 ERA entering Sunday’s game.
The walk trouble hit Assad again in the first inning Sunday. He walked the bases loaded with one out in the first, got a ground ball for the second out with a run scoring, but then a two-run single by Charlie Blackmon made it 3-0, and a home run by Connor Joe in the second inning off Assad gave the Rockies a 4-0 lead.