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. Could he translate all that terrific stuff into success at the top level?

It was only one game, this 7-4 flattening of first-place Florida last night 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.

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Today

• Game: Pirates vs. Florida Marlins, 6:10 p.m., Land Shark Stadium.

• TV, radio: WPGB-FM (104.7).

• Pitching: HP Zach Duke (8-6, 3.13) vs. LHP Andrew Miller (2-4, 4.45).

• Key matchup: The Pirates ran the bases almost at will on Miller, stealing three and visibly distracting him to contribute to his four walks April 20 at PNC Park. He was charged with four runs in the 8-0 rout.

• Of note: Florida's Hanley Ramirez and Cody Ross are the only teammates in National League history with three or more grand slams each in the same season.

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"He was impressive," manager John Russell said. "What Charlie did out there ... very impressive."

Despite two rain delays and a persistent drizzle that cost him a good grip much of the evening, Morton 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 quash 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 placed on fast-forward?

The first two batters 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 broke his bat for a flyout.

"It really moved," catcher Jason Jaramillo said.

"We had Morton against the ropes a couple times, but he made pitches when he had to," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said.

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.

One thing no one has questioned about Morton is his stuff.

Well, maybe just one question ...

Bob Walk, former pitcher and current broadcaster for the team, asked this upon emerging from the booth last night: "When was the last time you saw anyone on the Pirates with stuff like that? With that combination of velocity and movement?"

The question was taken to shortstop Jack Wilson, the most tenured current player.

"If you're talking just about movement, I'd say Sean Burnett when he first came up as a rookie, before getting hurt," Wilson said. "His pitches moved like crazy."

But Burnett never threw 95 mph, as Morton did routinely last night.

What about overall pure stuff?

"No one," Wilson answered without hesitation. "Not since I've been here."

If Morton was allowing any aspect of the evening to get to his head, it did not show.

"You know, I've been pitching really well in the minors for about a year and a half, and that's it," he said. "I threw six innings out there tonight, and I need to go deeper."

But, given those questions that tailed him through his time in the Atlanta system and while struggling with the parent Braves last summer -- 6.15 ERA in 15 starts -- might this not have meant something?

"Oh, for sure. I know there have been doubts about me, and I've had doubts myself at different points. This is a building block, absolutely. It felt good."

Perhaps the sharpest sign of how Morton felt came on a strikeout of Ramirez in the fourth.

Morton had gotten ahead 0-2, and Jaramillo set up well outside, hoping to get the free-swinger to chase. Morton decided, without any kind of shake-off, that he would just go ahead and fire a fastball right over the plate. Ramirez was frozen stiff, clearly anticipating a waste pitch. Jaramillo had to lunge to his left to catch it, and the umpire rang up strike three.

"I just felt like we could get him," Morton said.

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 -- he previously homered July 31, 2008, with the Texas Rangers -- for a two-run shot in the next inning.

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

"I'm feeling a lot better up there, taking a lot of good swings," Moss said.

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.

"We never thought about taking him out," Russell said. "He seemed fine."

"I just tried to keep busy with that second one," Morton said. "It really wasn't a big deal."

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

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