MIAMI - There had been questions about Charlie Morton, long before he became the Pirates' most immediate return in the Nate McLouth trade.

Chief among them:

1. Was he mentally tough enough?

2. Would he be able to translate all that terrific stuff into success at the top level?

It was only one game, this 7-4 flattening of first-place Florida tonight at Land Shark Stadium that included rare home runs from Brandon Moss and Ramon Vazquez, but perhaps it began Morton's process of answering the above.

Emphatically.

Despite two rain delays and a persistent drizzle that cost him a good grip much of the evening, he kept the Marlins scoreless through six innings on just one single.

He did walk four, twice when he clearly lost a grip on full counts, but he also used that stuff to get out of his only two jams.

Again, emphatically.

The first two Florida batters reached in the fifth, ending Morton's no-hitter, but he promptly nailed down a popup, groundout and swinging strikeout of John Baker over a biting changeup.

Or was it a curve?

The first two reached again in the sixth, but Morton responded with a groundout, a popup by the Marlins' greatest talent, Hanley Ramirez, and a flyout from cleanup man Jorge Cantu. The latter came on a 94-mph fastball that tailed in toward Cantu so dramatically that it, one, broke his bat for a lazy fly to left and, two, caused catcher Jason Jaramillo to lose his balance and tip over in reaching for it.

This was Morton's fourth start with the Pirates, but his first at full health. A tight hamstring knocked him out of his debut and limited him in the next two.

The Pirates now are 4-0 against Florida and 14-8 against the East Division, the best such record of any team outside that division.

Any explanation?

"I don't know what it is," manager John Russell said. "I wish I knew. I'd love to relate it to our division."

The Pirates are 11-23 within the Central.

After the threat of rain delayed the first pitch a half-hour, the Pirates burst to a 4-0 lead off Florida's Chris Volstad on those home runs: Moss hit his second, a solo shot in the first inning, and Vazquez hit his first, a two-run shot in the next inning. Vazquez had not homered since July 31, 2008, while with the Texas Rangers.

Moss, in his past 40 games, has raised his average from .176 to .264.

Yet another delay -- this time actual rain -- cost another 45 minutes and kept Morton off the mound nearly an hour. The Marlins replaced Volstad, but Morton remained.

The Pirates added three in the seventh on Andrew McCutchen's RBI double and Jack Wilson's two-run double.

Another recent newcomer by trade, Joel Hanrahan, did not fare nearly as well. He allowed two runs on three hits and a walk in his lone inning of relief.

Jeff Karstens gave up Baker's two-run home run in the ninth.