Starling Marte has consistently held down the five-spot in the Pirates’ order early in the 2015 season. (Peter Diana/Post-Gazette)

The Pirates have used the exact same batting order, apart from the pitcher, six times already this season. That may not sound unusual, but it is. If they run the same order out five more times they’ll break the record for the PNC Park era.

Apart from “Andrew McCutchen, batting third,’’ the Pirates order has been a mix-and-match proposition for years. Even the past two playoff teams rarely batted the same octet. In 2014, the most common batting order began only eight games, and it was only seven games the year before that.

So it’s possible this could be the most settled order since the playoff teams of the early 1990s. Perhaps that’s a measure of its talent, but the bats have been inconsistent for the second consecutive April. The Pirates have been two-hit twice, and three-hit, four-hit and five-hit, too. They’ve been shut out three times and scored only two runs in three more games. They’ve wasting a lot of good starting pitching.

When hits are that scarce, no order would be able to group many, but, for the record, the regular order many of you can already cite is Josh Harrison, Gregory Polanco, Andrew McCutchen, Neil Walker, Starling Marte, Pedro Alvarez, Francisco Cervelli, Jordy Mercer and the pitcher. That starting lineup has won three and lost three.

McCutchen is the one true holdover, having batted third 146 times last year, or every game he played. Harrison led off 83 games, largely in the second half. Walker was in the cleanup spot 53 times, mostly in the second half. Mercer batted eighth 70 times. The others bounced around.

It would be odd if this does wind up a set lineup. Most teams don’t bat their most powerful hitter sixth or their top base stealer fifth. But manager Clint Hurdle has some good reasons for casting against type here.

These are Alvarez’s career slash lines batting fourth, fifth and sixth, through Wednesday:

           PA     AVG/OBA/SLG/OPS     AB/HR

4th      525     .193/.276/.364/.640          23.4

5th      607     .272/.333/.477/.811          20.4

6th      869     .248/.312/.476/.788          16.8

Rather than try to figure out why that is, the best thing the Pirates can do is keep batting Alvarez fifth or sixth and not worry about it. I’d certainly move Alvarez up to fifth before I’d risk him at cleanup. There often are as many RBI opportunities there. Marte, mostly batting fifth, and Walker, mostly batting cleanup, had identical numbers of plate appearances with runners on base (26) through Wednesday, and Marte actually had more runners on (36 to 31).

Marte hasn’t been a bad leadoff hitter in his brief career, but while batting fifth he has traded getting on base for more power.

         PA     AVG/OBA/SLG/OPS        SB/CS

1st    852     .275/.330/.434/.765          56/18

5th    166     .247/.291/.506/.797            9/4            

6th      73    .429/.452/.714/1.166           3/3

That’s not a large sample size, but flipping Alvarez and Marte in the order might be an experiment worth trying. It would make a bit more sense to have Marte attempting steals in in front of singles hitters like Cervelli and Mercer rather than in front of a home run hitter like Alvarez.

Some other thoughts:

• Mercer, in his brief career, has been a dangerous hitter in the second spot (.351/.386/.550/.936 in 217 plate appearances) but a cipher batting eighth (.226/.299/.316/.615). Mercer also tortures lefties (.340/.381/.528/.909 in 233 PA) and Polanco hasn’t been able to figure them out (.170/.219/.239/.457 in 97 PA). Mercer was hurt when the Pirates faced a lefty Tuesday and Hurdle wisely sat Polanco and Alvarez, but Mercer might be the guy to bat second the next time the Pirates face a lefty.

• Walker’s OPS has been remarkably consistent batting second (.799), third (.788), fifth (.792) and sixth (.800), but it’s tailed off when he bats cleanup (.720). He’s not the ideal cleanup hitter, but there’s nobody else clearly better.

None of this could be called critical. The order is always less important than lots of hits, wherever they might be. But since I got into this esoteric question with the aid of baseball-reference.com, let me end this with some batting orders that may bring back both happy and unhappy memories:

The most common batting order of the PNC Park era was this one from 2010 and manager John Russell. The team finished 57-105, and this was the opening octet for 10 games: Andrew McCutchen, Jose Tabata, Neil Walker, Garrett Jones, Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Doumit, Ronny Cedeno and Chris Snyder. (Doumit was the regular catcher but played right field when Snyder caught.)

The 1990 Pirates were the last Pittsburgh team to have a pretty set batting order. This lineup went to the plate in this order 44 times: Wally Backman, Jay Bell, Andy Van Slyke, Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Sid Bream, Mike LaValliere and Jose Lind. In 1991 and ’92, when the Pirates repeated as National League Eastern Division champions, the most common orders took the field only 19 and 12 times, though players such as Bell and Van Slyke stayed put.

Let’s end this with four Pirates World Champions:

1979, 68 different 1-through-8 batting orders, with the most common order for 30 games: Omar Moreno, Tim Foli, Dave Parker, Willie Stargell, John Milner, Bill Madlock, Ed Ott and Phil Garner.

1971, 107 total batting orders, with the most common for seven games: Dave Cash, Richie Hebner, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Al Oliver, Bob Robertson, Manny Sanguillen and Gene Alley.

1960, 46 different batting orders, most common for 24 games: Bill Virdon, Dick Groat, Bob Skinner, Rocky Nelson, Roberto Clemente, Smoky Burgess, Don Hoak and Bill Mazeroski.

1925, 52 different orders, most common for 26 games: Max Carey, Eddie Moore, Kiki Cuyler, Clyde Barnhart, Pie Traynor, Glenn Wright, George Grantham, Earl Smith.

The 1909 World Championship Pirates order is unavailable.

First Published: May 1, 2015, 3:08 a.m.