Mired in a four-game losing skid, the Salem Sox turned to Brandon Workman on Sunday evening, and the righthander gave the Sox exactly what they needed.
Workman faced just one more than the minimum over seven scoreless innings, propelling Salem to a 7-0 shutout victory over Winston-Salem. He surrendered two singles and one walk, but two of the three baserunners were erased via double plays. With Michael Gleason retiring the final six batters of the game consecutively, the two Sox righties combined on a two-hitter, and the Dash never had a man reach second base in the entire game.
Workman dealt 56 of his 83 pitches for strikes, extending to seven innings for the first time in the Carolina League. His ERA shrunk from 3.12 to 2.78 with his scintillating performance, in which he struck out three batters and generated seven ground-outs. Record-wise, Workman improved to 5-3 as the Sox got off the schneid.
Offensively, Salem broke through against Dash lefty Blair Walters in the third inning. Making his Advanced-A debut, Walters struck out the side in the second, but the Sox pounded four hits against him in the third, including a Travis Shaw RBI single and a Xander Bogaerts two-run bomb. Bogaerts, who also homered on Saturday in Lynchburg, drove a two-run missile into Winston’s outfield bar beyond the left-center field fence for his 11th homer of the season, seven of which have come in June.
Up 3-0, Shaw launched his 12th dinger of the season in the fifth, a solo shot that gave the Sox a 4-run lead. Later on, Heiker Meneses chipped in with a two-run single in the seventh to extend the advantage to 6-zip. In the ninth, Christian Vazquez collected his second hit of the night, an RBI single that plated Shaw, who scored his third run of the game to make it 7-0.
All seven runs were driven in by the 2-3-4-5 quartet of Meneses, Shaw, Bogaerts, and Vazquez, with each individual in that foursome delivering two hits apiece. Matty Johnson also went 2-for-4 from the ninth spot in the batting order as the Red Sox outhit the Dash 12-2.
With their first win of the second half in the bag, the Salem Sox continue their series against the Dash on Monday evening, with Miguel Celestino set to oppose Matt Heidenreich. First pitch is scheduled for 7:00.
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Chris Graham
