MIAMI _ The rarely seen opponents from the opposite coast arrived Friday for their first visit to Marlins Park with one of the most accomplished hitting tandems in baseball.
Albert Pujols needs three home runs to become the ninth player with 600. Mike Trout was tied for the American League lead in homers and at or near the top in every slugging category.
Whether or not they were the inspiration, it was the Marlins flexing their muscles from the start in an 8-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels, including a 460-foot homer by Giancarlo Stanton that ignited a four-run first inning against Jesse Chavez.
Stanton's clout also put a dent in the back wall to the right of the camera well in center field.
Justin Bour's ninth homer in his past 14 games, a three-run smash to right in the sixth off reliever Jose Alvarez, provided needed separation and capped a three-homer night for the Marlins.
Starter Dan Straily and the Marlins bullpen limited the impact of the Angels sluggers, with Martin Maldonado's two-run homer the most damaging blow.
The win, in the opener of a 10-game homestand, was the Marlins' third in five games. It was the Angels' first game in South Florida since 2011 when they won two of three at the Marlins' previous stadium in Miami Gardens.
Bour's 13th homer reclaimed the team lead after Stanton pulled even with his 12th. More significant, Bour has hit four of his past six off left-handers after hitting none in the first 124 plate appearances of his career against southpaws.
Stanton teed off on Chavez's changeup and clubbed it to dead-center for a two-run homer. It was his first since May 8, ending a 14-game drought.
The mammoth blast was launched at 111.9 mph off the bat (per Statcast) and smacked hard off the wall above the shrubbery. It was the second of three Marlins hits to open the first and the first of two homers in the inning.
Christian Yelich, returning after missing one game with a tight hip flexor, showed his normal speed when he doubled to right and continued to third when Kole Calhoun misplayed the ball for an error. Yelich scored on a close play on Marcell Ozuna's broken-bat grounder to short.
A.J. Realmuto added an exclamation mark to a four-run inning with an opposite-field drive to right into the Marlins' bullpen, his fourth.
Another impressive display of Stanton's strength was when he broke his bat at the handle on a grounder to short and the barrel bounded well out into left field.
Stanton, Yelich (all doubles) and Dee Gordon had three hits apiece.
Maldonado's two-run homer in the sixth cut the Marlins' lead to 5-3 and ended an otherwise solid outing by Straily, who struck out six and allowed six hits in 51/3 innings.
Marlins manager Don Mattingly let Straily bat with two outs and two on in the bottom of the fifth (he struck out) to try to coax another inning from his most reliable starter. But Straily gave up a leadoff double to Pujols just inside third base, and Maldonado hit a 1-2 fastball off the top of the wall in center.
The Angels put together a two-out rally in the first after Trout walked on a 3-2 pitch and Pujols followed with a sharp single to left.
Trout scored when Luis Valbuena's drive to left-center hit off the top of Ozuna's glove as he leaped in front of the fence. It was ruled a double.
The Marlins got a break when Pujols was unable to score from first.
Mattingly saw enough of Trout while managing the Dodgers to gain a first-hand appreciation of his ample talent.
"It will be good for our fans to watch him play," Mattingly said, adding that the best strategy against the Angels star, "Usually it's get the guys out in front of him. Keep him up there with nobody on would be the best thing where you can be a little careful with him."
Straily was careful enough, walking Trout when he came up the first two times with nobody on. Then, with two outs and a runner on first in the fifth, Straily threw all breaking balls and changeups before getting Trout to hit a shallow fly to center on a 3-2 slider.
