Starling Marte caps 4-for-5 day at the plate with a walk-off homer for Pittsburgh

It’s been a big season for Starling Marte with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Not only did he take over in center field for Andrew McCutchen, he’s had a stellar start to the year on offense, too. Heading to Sunday’s matinee with the Atlanta Braves, Marte had recorded at least one hit in his last three consecutive games. Then he really turned it on.

Hitting in the two spot, Marte recorded a hit in four-of-five plate appearances, with two runs batted in.

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Oh, and most importantly, those two runs came by way of a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning with the Pirates trailing 5-4 to secure a 6-5 victory.

Truthfully, the Pirates should be awarded an automatic win every time they wear those throwback jerseys, but that’s getting off topic.

Marte launched this ball to one of the deepest parts of the ballpark and cleared the fence easily. The Pirates had trailed all game before that blast — though the 28-year-old couldn’t be blamed for that.

Marte grounded out in the first inning then rattled off four straight hits against the likes of Julio Teheran, Arodys Vizcaino and Jose Ramirez — two bloops to the outfield, a swinging bunt and a blast to end the game.

Teheran was the only one to record an out against Marte and he still ended up getting burned by him.

Over his last four games, Marte has now gone eight-for-17, a solid .470 batting average.

First he came for McCutchen’s position, now Marte is mimicking his magic at the plate.

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Blake Schuster is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at blakeschuster@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Schustee