Sox blank Keys, 7-0

Brandon Workman matched a career-high with nine strikeouts over six spectacular scoreless innings, paving the way for a 7-0 Salem Sox victory on Monday night at LewisGale Field.

Travis Shaw belted his 13th homer and drove in three runs, while Michael Almanzar and Christian Vazquez belted back-to-back bombs in the eighth to help the Sox deny Frederick’s bid for a three-game sweep. Workman permitted just  one hit and two walks to earn his seventh win of the year, while Andrew Jones tossed the final three innings to complete the shutout and earn his second save of the season.

Three batters into the bottom of the first inning, Salem moved in front on Shaw’s RBI single. Heiker Meneses, who doubled against Keys starter Trent Howard, scurried across the plate on Shaw’s opposite field hit and the Sox led 1-0.

Two innings later, the gap widened when Shaw smashed a laser-beam line drove homer over the right-field fence. The two-run missile gave the Sox a 3-0 lead and tied Shaw with Frederick’s Aaron Baker for the league lead with 66 RBI.

With Workman plastering zeroes on the line score, the Sox added two more tallies in the fifth. Shannon Wilkerson led off with his second single of the night and scored on Meneses’ double into the left-field corner. With two outs, Brandon Jacobs singled to bring home Meneses and make it 5-zip. Jacobs’ hit also extended his hitting streak to nine games,  in which he has hit .429 (15-for-35).

The offense provided a pair of exclamation points in the eighth, with Almanzar and Vazquez bashing consecutive pitches from David Baker over the left-field wall with two outs. The dingers were the fifth shots of the year for each, giving Jones an even larger cushion heading to the ninth.

The Keys managed just four hits, with Workman permitting only one second-inning single from Michael Mosby. Workman required just 12 pitches to strike out the side in the fourth and threw (unofficially) 86 pitches in the game, 59 for strikes. His ERA shrunk to 2.94, fifth best in the league. In his last eight starts, Workman has gone 5-2 with a 2.06 ERA.