Charlotte 11, Tides 2

One starting pitcher was hitting his stride while another took a step toward reaching his.

Charlotte’s Lance Broadway, a former No. 1 draft pick, tossed seven strong innings to lead the Knights .

Meanwhile, Tides starter Ryan Bukvich called his third consecutive start after more than 300 relief appearances “another building block.”

The Knights hit two home runs off Bukvich, marring an otherwise solid outing, then clobbered Norfolk reliever Esteban Yan in the ninth inning to break open a three-run game.

Buk-ing a role

Bukvich, 30, turned pro in 2000 and made 343 relief appearances before getting his first start last month.

On Wednesday, the righthander pitched a career-high six innings and allowed three earned runs and eight hits. He walked one and struck out two.

Bukvich gave up a two-run homer to Brad Eldred in the fifth and a solo blast to Jason Bourgeois in the sixth.

“It’s a little bit of a learning curve every time I go out there,” Bukvich said. The biggest adjustment, he added, is “knowing what routine you need to get into in between starts. It’s hard for me to even know when to start warming up. ”

Broadway’s showtime

Broadway, the 25th overall pick by the Chicago White Sox in 2005, had surrendered eight or more hits in each of his previous five starts. But on Wednesday, he stymied a Tides lineup that was tied for first in the International League with a .271 batting average.

The righthander faced five or fewer batters in the first seven innings and retired the side four times. He threw 10 pitches in a 1-2-3 seventh.

The Tides managed just two infield hits before Luis Hernandez’s double and Chris Roberson’s RBI triple started off the eighth inning.

Remember him?

Scott Sauerbeck, who played for the Tides in 1997 and ’98, pitched a scoreless inning in relief for Charlotte. The 36-year-old lefthander was the Tides’ only representative in the Triple-A All-Star game at Harbor Park in 1998.

By the numbers

1 Tides baserunners who reached third base in the first seven innings.

7 Consecutive hits by the Knights to start the ninth inning against Norfolk reliever Yan, who allowed two singles and three doubles and didn’t record an out.

16 Number of consecutive games in which Norfolk’s Omar Santos has hit safely after his infield single in the second – the longest streak since Russ Johnson’s 19 games in 2003.

Jami Frankenberry, (757) 446-2295, jami.frankenberry@pilotonline.com