MIAMI _ The Miami Marlins struggled for a week to put together productive innings.
Consequently they had gone four games without a win, since Justin Bour's three-run homer culminated a six-run sixth at San Diego on April 22.
Bour played the role of the big bopper again Sunday with his biggest day in the big leagues. The powerful first baseman drove in six runs with four hits (both career bests), including a two-run home run to single-handedly pull the Marlins out of a week-long funk in a 10-3 win against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Marlins Park.
Bour's two-out single with the bases loaded with two outs in the fifth inning off reliever Trevor Williams drove in two runs and gave the Marlins their first lead of the series. All of Bour's hits produced runs, including a double in the second and a single in the fourth.
With the Marlins clinging to a one-run lead, he put the exclamation point on a memorable performance with an upper-deck, two-run shot off Daniel Hudson in the seventh. That opened the floodgates on a week of frustration for Marlins hitters as they went on to score six, matching the breakthrough inning at San Diego.
Perhaps standing next to Ichiro Suzuki during the pregame ceremony honoring the future Hall of Famer's 3,000th hit conveyed some magic to Bour's bat.
The afternoon got off to a rocky start, though, following the tribute to Ichiro.
Marlins starter Tom Koehler seemed to be throwing batting practice fodder when he gave up two doubles and a two-run homer (Josh Bell) to the first four batters. Even the out he recorded on Andrew McCutchen's long fly to center, traveled 400 feet.
Following Josh Harrison's double to open the game, Bell clubbed a 3-1 hanging slider 368 feet into the seats in right-center. Gregory Polanco added the second double and scored on John Jaso's solid single to right.
Koehler got through four innings without further damage before leaving for a pinch hitter.
The Marlins clawed their way back into the game but continued to have difficulty nurturing promising innings.
Most disappointing was the fourth inning when they twice had runners on the corners with no outs but milked only one run out of it.
The chance for a big inning was set up by heady base-running by Giancarlo Stanton, who led off with a walk.
When third baseman Josh Harrison, moving to his left, bobbled Marcell Ozuna's bouncer while attempting to start a double play, Stanton saw opportunity as he rounded second and never hesitated in dashing to unguarded third base.
Bour brought Stanton home with an RBI single to right to cut the deficit to 3-2 and put runners again on the corners.
An attempted safety squeeze failed when A.J. Ellis bounced the bunt straight up to catcher Chris Stewart. Ozuna read the botched bunt poorly and was nabbed off third.
Still there were two on with one out, but Miguel Rojas and pinch-hitter Derek Dietrich were unable to advance the runners.
Back to back doubles by Ozuna and Bour in the second got the Marlins on the board. But they failed to take advantage of three consecutive hits to open the inning as Rojas grounded into a double play.
