Marte showing real patience? Or a spring mirage?

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Starling Marte took a pitch.

Seriously, he watched it go right by. Didn't offer. Didn't even lean.

Then he kept taking them until trotting out to first base.

Then, a few innings later in the Pirates' 3-1 win over the Twins on this steamy Wednesday at Hammond Stadium, he did it again, marking the third time in nine plate appearances this spring he's exhibited actual patience at the plate.

Man, and you thought the Penguins and Steelers were the only ones making big news this afternoon.



"Oh, come on," Marte would reply to my gentle jesting at his expense. "I'm a very patient hitter."

He kept a straight face, too ... for about 0.6 seconds. Which is, of course, roughly the elapsed time of one of his at-bats in 2016, when he walked all of 23 times in 529 plate appearances. Which is, of course, why a .311 batting average needed to see him get hit a ridiculous 16 times for a .362 on-base percentage. Which is, quite possibly, partly responsible for his home run total dropping from 19 to 9.

So, for real now, is something afoot here?

"No," Marte insisted. "I'm not changing anything. I'll listen to what they say, if it's good, for sure. I always listen. I learn. But my approach hasn't changed. I have to swing the bat. You know me."

And those home runs?

"I'm not going to think about home runs. I never think about home runs. Even when the team needs me to hit a home run and I hit a home run, I'm not thinking about it. I just want to see a good pitch and hit it."

But that's the same thing, right?

"I'm just going to be me."

Hey, he is who he is, especially now at age 28. And even the inner hitting coach that still emerges from Clint Hurdle, who almost certainly will have him in the leadoff spot all summer, has grown to respect that.

"I think he's growing," Hurdle said. "I think experience is a factor now. With each year, you're seeing more maturity at the plate. He's understanding now the fight in the box. He's got a better understanding of what they're trying to do."

He grinned slightly at that.

"They're trying to get him out by not throwing strikes. And the patience, the ability to read early and not feel like he's got to jump the fastball. He can take a fastball. He can take a look at the breaking ball."

It's at that point that the manager seemed to grasp the magnitude of what he'd just witnessed.

"Yeah, two walks in a game is somewhat of an outlier for him. It's never not good when he gets two walks in a game, as far as we're concerned."

HANDFUL OF HIGHLIGHTS

• Jared Hughes had "a nice bounceback outing," per Hurdle, from a calamitous spring debut earlier in the week, but it was a bit bumpy: After two quick outs, Joe Mauer walked, Brian Dozier reached on an error, and a wild pitch advanced both. But ByungHo Park bounced out to short, and Hughes skipped off the mound. Saturday against the Orioles, he was tagged for three runs, five hits and two walks in a third of an inning. "I felt great out there," Hughes said. "It's really just timing stuff right now. That was much better."

• Organizational depth starter Josh Lindblom, 29, pitched two scoreless innings with a strikeout and walk.

• John Jaso, looking characteristically comfortable at the plate all week, boomed a solo home run to the seats high above right field in the sixth. He just missed on one earlier, too, drilling a deep flyout to right-center, and finished 2 for 3.

• Austin Meadows drove a single the other way among his two at-bats. The system's top-ranked prospect, according to Baseball America, is 2 for 8 on the spring. Also, and related, Hurdle said the Pirates plan to keep him in center through Grapefruit play rather than having him roam in working toward a possible extra role.

• It's not a game highlight, but here's a 30-second scene video I shot, highlighting one of Florida's nicest spring complexes: