Salem's Shawaryn strings together six zeros

A month into his Carolina League career, Mike Shawaryn is starting to figure out the competition.
"Obviously, with every jump you make, guys are going to get better, so you've just got to make adjustments to your game and their game as well," Shawaryn said. "When you first get up here, you do what you've known to do, but once you start figuring out guys and their swings, you make adjustments. The biggest difference here is that you have to make them a little bit quicker."
The No. 12 Red Sox prospect recorded his first scoreless outing in five tries since getting promoted as Class A Advanced Salem topped Wilmington 3-1 on Friday at Frawley Stadium. Shawaryn allowed three hits, walked one and struck out six in six innings.

Gameday box score
"I was able to establish my fastball early in the game," the 22-year-old right-hander said. "Then, throughout the game, I was able to mix in my off-speed pitches to keep them off-balance. The plan that we went into the game with, I was able to execute it and it worked out fine."
Shawaryn's only 1-2-3 innings came in the first and sixth, but he was able to rely on his defense to work around the four baserunners he allowed.
"It's always nice when the guys behind you are making great plays," the Carneys Point, New Jersey, native said. "Fortunately for me, we have a great defense out there that we run out every night. I know yesterday was a little bit longer of a game, but once the game starts, they are all locked in. It's fun to play with this group of guys."
The scoreless outing for Shawaryn (2-2) was his second straight solid start against the Blue Rocks. On Sunday, the 2016 fifth-round pick gave up one run on two hits -- including a solo homer -- over six innings in a 9-2 rout.
Prior to that, the University of Maryland product was tagged for 10 runs over his first 11 Carolina League innings. Shawaryn posted a 3.88 ERA over 10 starts with Class A Greenville before being assigned to Salem on June 4.
"I'm just working on my own game," he said. "There are adjustments in game that you can make, whether it's pitches that you've got to throw to certain guys, what they like and what they don't like. But at the end of the day, you're still working on stuff because you're not at your ultimate goal."
As for Friday's start, Shawaryn learned the importance of setting the tone on the mound.

"If you're not able to establish a pitch, it kind of makes it tougher to work off of because you can't use your secondary pitches off that pitch," the 6-foot-2, 200-pound hurler said. "So, if you're able to establish whatever is working for the night and just go attack with that, it makes the night go by a little bit easier."
Adam Lau struck out four over two scoreless innings before Stephen Nogosek yielded a run on two hits with a walk and three strikeouts in the ninth en route to his first save for Salem. 
Bryan Hudson collected three singles, while eighth-ranked prospect Josh Ockimey and Jose Sermo had two hits apiece for the Red Sox.