Hillcats allowing too many big innings

One of the requirements for a quality start, an effective way of measuring a pitcher’s performance, is that the outing lasts at least six innings.

In their current slump, the Hillcats wouldn’t mind getting four.

A Lynchburg starter failed to get through the fourth inning for the fifth straight game in the Hillcats’ 13-9 loss to Salem at City Stadium.

Wednesday’s victim was left-hander Brian Holliday, who couldn’t make it through a nightmarish third inning in which the Avalanche sent 14 batters to the plate and scored nine runs.

“We’ll start going deeper (into games),” Holliday assured. “As a staff in general, we’ve just got to make our pitches and avoid the big inning. Obviously tonight, the big inning killed us.”

Lynchburg (17-28) has lost three straight and 10 of its last 12.

The Hillcats actually led 4-0 heading into the third, courtesy of a second-inning grand slam by Jared Keel.

It didn’t last. The top of the third started innocently enough, when Salem’s No. 9 hitter Roberto Mena worked a full count before drawing a walk. Things snowballed from there.

Jhon Florentino followed with a double, the first of six Salem hits in the inning.

Two Lynchburg errors complicated things. The first, a throwing error on third baseman Tony Mansolino, allowed an extra run to score and failed to record the first out of the inning. Salem followed that up with a walk and three singles, the last a two-run shot up the middle off Orlando Rosales’ bat that gave the Avalanche (18-24) its first lead at 5-4.

“We’re giving them extra outs,” said Hillcats manager Jeff Branson, whose team has made a league-high 52 errors. “We’ve got to be able to make plays. … We’ve just got to be able to play defense better, plain and simple.”

An errant pickoff throw by Holliday made things worse, allowing one runner to score and moving another into scoring position. He’d leave two batters later, after giving up a sacrifice fly and a single to Mena, who was the 10th batter of the inning.

Holliday (1-2) was charged with eight runs (five earned) on six hits in 2 2/3 innings. After getting through five April starts with a 1.52 ERA, he’s given up at least five earned runs in two of his last three starts.

“If you have one bad outing, (what matters) is what you do the next time,” Holliday said. “When it starts getting bad is when it happens consistently.”

Blair Johnson relieved Holliday, but Salem kept hitting. Jordan Parraz, the 13th player the Avalanche sent to bat, hit his second single of the inning, driving in two runs to make it 9-4.

Salem batted around for a second time in a four-run seventh. Parraz and James Van Ostrand both hit RBI doubles to bump the lead to 13-6.

It ruined the Hillcats’ best hitting night in a week. Lynchburg scored nine runs on 12 hits. Four players — Brian Friday, Jim Negrych, Steve Lerud and Keel — had two hits apiece and Lynchburg even rallied for three runs in the ninth before Salem finally ended things.

It still wasn’t enough to erase one really bad inning.

“There have been times when (the pitchers) have done their job and we haven’t,” Keel said of the lineup. “There’s been times when they’ve held them to one run and we don’t score. You’ve just got to hope for (pitching and hitting) to happen in the same game.”

NOTES: Salem reliever Chad Wagler (1-0) earned the win with 2 1/3 shutout innings of relief. He had three strikeouts. … Keel’s grand slam was Lynchburg’s first since Shelby Ford and Greg Picart did it on consecutive days last July. … Keel has two hits in each of the last four games. In his last 13 games, the left fielder is 14-for-38 (.368) with four home runs. He batted .158 prior to that.