MIAMI -- With the ability to change speeds and keep hitters off-stride with his tantalizing changeup, Trevor Richards has been one of the toughest starters in the National League to hit. Entering Friday night, the right-hander ranked seventh among NL starters in batting average against at .206.

Still, the Pirates found a way to chip away at Richards, tagging him for five runs in five innings on their way to an 11-0 win over the Marlins in the series opener at Marlins Park.

The 11 hits allowed are a career high for Richards, who hadn’t given up more than eight in his first 13 starts this season. The 26-year-old had been effective limiting traffic on the bases. His 1.19 WHIP is 20th among all NL starting pitchers.

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Richards’ bread-and-butter pitch, his changeup, typically gives hitters trouble. Opponents were hitting .158 off his changeup entering Friday. But six of the Pirates’ 11 hits off Richards were against the changeup, including four in the fourth and fifth innings, when Pittsburgh built a five-run lead.

“We went in planning on throwing a lot of them, and we did,” Richards said. “They put some good swings on some down in the zone, and they put some good swings on some I left up, too. It just wasn't there consistently today, and the fastball wasn't there, as well. I wasn't getting the corners. If I got a strike with it, it was over the middle. Those pitches got hit.”

The Pirates snapped their seven-game losing streak, and the Marlins fell to 1-6 in their nine-game homestand.

Second time through the order, the Pirates attacked Richards early in counts.

“A few teams have tried,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said. “Get after him early. First-pitch strikes. They did a nice job, I thought, of staying the other way. They actually had good swings on the changeup. A lot of their guys, I thought, were on him pretty good. I didn't see as many swings where guys were off balance. They did a nice job with him.”

Richards only struck out one batter, a season low for him.

The Pirates broke through in the fourth inning, getting on the board on Colin Moran’s RBI single. Moran, the Marlins’ first-round Draft pick in 2013, had a three-run homer and a career-best five RBIs on the night.

“He got that home run, and they added three there,” Mattingly said of Moran. “He gets us early, too, there. You've got to get the ball to certain areas against him. You've got to use different combinations of pitches, and get the ball to certain parts of the plate. Obviously, we didn't get it there.”

For Richards, the big damage came in the four-run fifth inning, which got started on pitcher Steven Brault’s one-out double, followed by Kevin Newman’s RBI double. Starling Marte drove in Newman with a sacrifice fly, Josh Bell kept it going with a run-scoring triple and Moran added a run-scoring single.

The Marlins had their chances early, collecting seven hits off Brault in the first four innings. But they left eight on base, and the Pirates eventually broke things open. Brault scattered eight hits with six strikeouts and a hit batter in six innings.

“We had chances early,” Mattingly said. “You look up early, and they had 10 hits. We had seven. It was fairly early in the game. We had some chances.”