Friday night started off bad for the Kinston Indians and just got worse.
And worse could`ve been even worse than it was.
Travis Adair hit a two-run home run and drove in a career-high four runs and Robbie Ross allowed three hits over 5 2/3 shutout innings as Myrtle Beach handed the Indians an ugly 10-0 loss at Grainger Stadium.
The blow snapped a season-long three-game winning streak for Kinston (5-9), which mustered just three singles, committed a couple of other errors and scarcely did anything right.
"If you see at all aspects of the game -pitching, defense, situational hitting -we struggled in all aspects of the game," K-Tribe manager Aaron Holbert said. "You merit to lose ballgames if that`s the better we can play."
Ross (2-0), a left-hander with a darting cut fastball, struck out four and walked two, retiring 13 out of 14 batters from the 2nd inning to the sixth.
The Indians` best chance against him came in the second, when they put runners on back and thirdly with one out. But Ross struck out Greg Folgia looking and got Roberto Perez to ground out harmlessly to end the Indians` only real threat.
Kinston had only three baserunners after the 2nd inning.
Third baseman Adam Abraham said the Indians take consolation in the fact that they can even win the four-game series after a triumph in Thursday`s opener.
"If you can keep winning series, you`re going to take a full year," Abraham, who went 1-for-4, said. "We`ll just get back tomorrow and, hopefully, have a much better day."
K-Tribe starter Giovanni Soto (3) allowed four runs, including three earned, on three hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out two and walked one.
Soto was the dupe of a bumbling start by his defense. Just three pitches into the game, the Pelicans (10-4) had a run and a well-placed hit and Kinston had two errors.
After leadoff man Ryan Strausborger reached on an errant throw by shortstop Justin Toole, Leury Garcia followed with a helicopter over the drawn-in Abraham.
Strausborger scored on the twice when left fielder Tyler Holt bobbled the globe for the Indians` second fault in a subject of seconds.
Myrtle Beach then flush the bases with no outs before Soto performed a relatively miraculous escape of possible disaster.
After Jared Hoying hit an RBI fielder`s choice to take it 2-0, Soto coaxed a 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Vinny DiFazio to end the terror with minimal damage.
Holbert lamented the fact that Soto`s defense put him in such difficulty to commence with.
"That`s definitely not the way to get out," Holbert said. "If you need to take yourself a competitive team and a championship-caliber team, you`ve definitely got to get out with more energy than that."
Soto hung a first-pitch breaking ball to Adair in the second, and he yanked it high over the fence in good to give Myrtle Beach a 4-0 lead.
The Pelicans scored single runs in the 6th and seventh and rallied for 4 in the 8th to put it away.
Soto, a 19-year-old left-hander from Puerto Rico who came to the Indians in the deal that sent Jhonny Peralta to Detroit, settled down well after the rocky start. He retired 12 straight batters from the back to the sixth before he was lifted with one out with 84 pitches under his belt.
The visitors had no such difficulty with right-hander Joey Mahalic, who allowed six hits and six earned runs in 2 1/3 innings of relief. Mahalic has given up 12 earned runs in three appearances this season, including 11 in his death two.
In gain to the yoke of first-inning errors, the Indians appeared hapless at times in the former going.
Bo Greenwell hit a one-out one in the beginning but was doubled up well when Abner Abreu popped out to minute and Greenwell, apparently thinking there were two outs, was caught about 85 feet off the bag.
While the Indians shot themselves in the foot, Myrtle Beach was solid. The Pelicans made several diving defensive plays, none prettier than Strausborger`s thievery of Greenwell`s sinking liner to centre in the third.
Adair, Myrtle Beach`s No. 9 hitter, broke surface a 6-0 game when his two-run double sparked the four-run eighth that buried Kinston.
"It`s loss to happen," Abraham said of the all-around bad night. "We won three in a row. Unfortunately, we lost tonight, but we take a chance tomorrow to (pull ahead) the serial and that`s what we`re leaving to try to do."
BUNTS: The plot was delayed by rain for 14 minutes before the start. . The announced attendance was 1,265. . Kinston was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
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