Starling Marte robs home run, hits walk-off blast for Pirates

It was a Marte partay Saturday afternoon at PNC Park.

Pittsburgh Pirates left-hander Starling Marte was involved in the two biggest plays of the game, robbing Brandon Crawford of a home run in the second inning and later hitting a two-out, walk-off home in the ninth to give Pittsburgh a 3-2 win. 

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And we thought Madison Bumgarner was the only one-man show in Pittsburgh this weekend.

On his home run robbery, Marte ranged to the left field wall and timed his leap perfectly to bring back Crawford’s long drive. Marte didn’t have to go high, he just had to be in the right spot and be on time. He was, and he made the whole thing look almost routine.

From there, starters Gerrit Cole and Mike Leake were pretty much lights out. The Giants managed a single run against Cole in the fifth and one more off reliever Joakim Soria in the eighth. Pittsburgh scored twice on solo home runs from Jung Ho Kang off Leake in the fifth and and Hunter Strickland in the seventh. Pittsburgh’s rookie infielder now has 12 home runs on the season as he continues to get more and more comfortable. 

That set the stage for Marte in the ninth. Rather than allow the game to reach extra innings, Marte applied the finishing touches by taking George Kontos deep to left field. 

Par-tay time!   

Marte joins Mike Trout, J.D. Martinez, Seth Smith and Grady Sizemore as other players to hit a homer and rob a homer in the same game this season. However, Marte is the first with a walk-off in that group.

The wild-card leading Pirates will definitely take it as they maintained a three-game edge over the Cubs and extended the lead to five games over the Giants. 

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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813