Things started out with so much promise for the Salt Lake Bees on Tuesday night.

First, before their game against the Nashville Sounds even began, the Bees picked up a half game on division-leading Colorado Springs, which lost the first game of a doubleheader.

Then, in the bottom of the first inning, Bees outfielder Terry Evans ripped a solo home run to right field, giving Salt Lake the early lead.

It went downhill from there for the Bees.

Nashville went on to blast Salt Lake for the second night in a row — this time 8-4.

The Bees actually had more hits than Nashville — 13 to 12 — but the Sounds made more noise with their hits.

"It looks like we're really, really pressing with men on base," said Bees manager Bobby Mitchell. "We had a lot of hits, but we're not coming up with big hits with two outs and with men on base."

Nashville, for the second night in a row, took the lead for good with a big third inning. This time it scored four runs off Bees starter Brad Salmon — one night after plating six in the third — to take a 5-1 lead.

Salt Lake scored a pair of runs in the seventh inning, and Sean Rodriguez hit a solo homer in the ninth, but it was too late.

The Bees started to show their frustration late in the game, with several players arguing with home-plate umpire Mike Jarboe about balls and strikes. Finally the ump had had enough in the eighth inning when he ejected Bees centerfielder Brad Coon after he argued about a called strike on the first pitch thrown to him.

"It's frustrating (that we aren't scoring more runs), but at the same time it's encouraging that we are getting hits," said Evans, who had two hits and two RBIs on the night. "For awhile there we would have given anything to have 13 hits. So it's encouraging that we are starting to hit the ball better, but now we need to execute better with men on and get more timely hits."

There was a bit of good news later in the night for the Bees coming from the other side of the Rockies,as Colorado Springs lost its nightcap as well. That means the Bees made up half a game despite the loss. The Bees are now 41/2 games behind the Sky Sox in the PCL Pacific Northern Division standings with 26 games remaining.

Tacoma, however, is the hottest team in the division, and it has now pulled into a tie for second place with the Bees.

The Bees and Sounds will complete their four-game series tonight at 7. Salt Lake's Mike MacDonald (6-11, 6.20 ERA) is scheduled to start against Nashville's Lindsay Gulin (6-7, 4.33).

BEES WAX: Following tonight's game the Bees will have just two more four-game series at home during the regular season. In fact, Salt Lake will play 17 of its final 25 regular-season games away from the friendly confines of Spring Mobile Ballpark. ... Bees catcher Bobby Wilson extended his home hitting streak to 17 games with a single in the seventh inning. It's the longest home hitting streak for the team this year. ... A crowd of 8,225 attended Tuesday's game. Salt Lake is fifth among the 16 PCL teams in attendance this season.

e-mail: lojo@desnews.com