On the scene: Liriano labors, Marte matures ²⁴

Francisco Liriano rears back for his first pitch Saturday at McKechnie Field. — DEJAN KOVACEVIC

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

BRADENTON, Fla. — Sights, sounds and the scene at McKechnie Field today …

• Francisco Liriano, fine-tuning for opening day April 6 in Cincinnati, threw four scoreless innings in the Pirates’ 2-2 tie with the Red Sox, striking out six and allowing only two hits.

All of which sounds wonderful right to the point one sees the pitch count at 81.

“Yeah, I was overthrowing a little bit,” Liriano said. “I would get to two strikes, then try to maybe be too nasty. I needed to settle down and just make my pitches. But I felt good. I felt strong. It’s good.”

The only count higher than the pitches was the temperature, 82 degrees.

“Oh, that doesn’t bother me. I’m from the Dominican. I just threw too hard sometimes.”

Key sequence came in the third: After a one-out single and walk put two aboard for Boston, Francisco Cervelli visited the mound. This marked only the second time Cervelli has caught Liriano, but the intervention apparently was appreciated.

“He told me I needed to relax,” Liriano recalled. “It was good. He did a good job.”

Especially on the trademark slider, one of baseball’s most savage.

“I could trust him. He was blocking everything.”

“What means the most to me,” Cervelli would say, “is that my pitchers believe in me.”

• Clint Hurdle was pleased with Cervelli, too, noting that he’s now caught every starter except A.J. Burnett as part of the spring plan to make sure he sees every pitcher on the staff before Cincinnati.

“There was a good chemistry out there,” Hurdle said. “I liked what I saw.”

• Any doubts about the validity of Starling Marte’s sensational second half to 2014 … well, those still apply, as spring stats don’t mean much. But it obviously doesn’t stunt the process that he’s batting .412, including two more singles today and his fourth steal.

“I’m doing everything to stay the same,” Marte said, referring to that second half. “I’m aggressive, but I wait for my pitch. And then I hit it hard. That’s all. I want to be the same player. Or better.”

Who’s ruling it out?

“There’s a difference already in the quality of at-bats from last spring to this spring, a real maturity,” Hurdle said. “It’s funny, but he’s in such a good place right now that you can hear him out there telling Gregory Polanco, ‘Slow it down! Take it easy!’ That’s all the same stuff we were telling Starling last year.”

Marte also has looked very much at home in center field during Andrew McCutchen’s absence — Cutch is expected back in action over the next couple days, per Hurdle’s postgame update — to the extent it might be reasonable to wonder if Marte could supplant him.

“He’ll be moving back to left,” Hurdle said in response to that coming up.

This is hardly a highlight, but here’s Marte sprinting home in the sixth when Corey Hart reached on an error … just because it’s fun to watch Marte sprinting anywhere.

• Jung-Ho Kang has gone out of sight, out of mind. Yesterday, he informed the media through the team that he won’t be doing any additional interviews until the end of camp. Today, he was a late scratch from the lineup, then stayed out of pregame warmups.

Something amiss?

Not in any way, Hurdle said: Kang was given a day, as have other players, to collect themselves and work on other matters away from game action.

• Josh Harrison is off to a .333 spring — 7 for 21 — and, in other news, the Earth remains on its axis. I somehow cobbled together a couple of questions on this topic today:

• One cannot fully appreciate the essence of old-school baseball until watching Mike LaValliere, in full uniform and brandishing an unopened cigar, bulldoze through the clubhouse and bellow: “Time to change the world, men!”

This actually happened today. Before a Grapefruit League exhibition. So, so glad to witness it.