PITTSBURGH -- Florida Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco was cruising Tuesday, having faced just two more than the minimum through 5 2/3 brilliant innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Nursing a 1-0 lead with nobody on base and two outs in the sixth, Nolasco had Freddy Sanchez 1-and-2. From there, Pittsburgh collected four straight hits and that, coupled with a questionable umpiring call in the ensuing half-inning, was all that was needed to cost the Fish their fourth straight victory. The Pirates won, 3-2.

"I've got to be able to close that inning out," Nolasco said. "We had a 1-0 lead at that point, and I just have to close that inning out. There's nothing else to it. That just can't happen."

Jorge Cantu went 3-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs and Hanley Ramirez had two hits for Florida, which still leads the National League East by 1 1/2 games in the young season. Xavier Nady had the winning two-run single for the Pirates, who snapped a six-game losing streak.

Even after a three-run sixth gave Pittsburgh all the runs it would need, the Marlins bounced back in the seventh on a leadoff homer by Cantu, his third of the season, and had runners at first and third with two outs with Ramirez at the plate.

The speedy Ramirez grounded weakly to third. Doug Mientkiewicz's throw was low but first baseman Adam LaRoche scooped it and got the out call from first-base umpire Mike Winters even though Ramirez appeared safe.

"Everybody knows I was safe," Ramirez said. "This game, it's just ... with one call, it can go bad."

A safe call would have tied the score and left the Fish with the go-ahead run in scoring position. Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez came out to argue the call and ultimately was ejected by Winters.

"I thought in real-life speed that Hanley had beat it," Gonzalez said. "It's a tough play, bang-bang, but I thought he had beat it. That's a tough situation in a ballgame with the tying run at third. But that's just the way it goes.

"Sometimes you get calls your way and sometimes you don't."

The Marlins continued to battle, putting the tying run at second in the eighth and ninth, but could not score. Pirates closer Matt Capps earned his fifth save when he got Ramirez to fly to right to end the ballgame.

"We had the tying run at second base with your hottest hitter at the plate," Gonzalez said.

"There's nothing I can do about the call," Ramirez said. "I can't control that, so I went out there and tried to forget about that and keep playing the ballgame. I liked the way we kept fighting after that. It was a good game."

The events of the final three innings ruined what had been a very promising start by Nolasco (1-2). The 25-year-old right-hander retired the first eight Pirates he faced and then had another streak of retiring eight Pirates in a row before the fateful sixth.

With one out in that inning, five consecutive Pirates reached (Nate McLouth was caught stealing after a walk). A Ryan Doumit double that just eluded the glove of a diving left fielder Josh Willingham scored Freddy Sanchez, and Nady followed with his single to left that scored Jason Bay and Doumit.

"He gets two outs, and we just couldn't get the last out in that inning," Gonzalez said. "Then things just kind of unraveled for us."

That the Marlins chose to pitch to Nady with first base open might have been a curious move, with Nady entering the game batting .347 and on-deck batter LaRoche only .123.

"That's why I didn't groove [Nady] a fastball," Nolasco said. "I was just staying with breaking balls and not letting him sit there and just tee off on a fastball right there."

Nady pulled a hanging curve into left for the winning hit, making Nolasco's final line three runs on five hits and two walks in six innings. He struck out four.

"Yeah [I'm happy with overall performance], but it's disappointing not being able to get out of that inning there," Nolasco said. "But you just have to move forward from here."

The Marlins jumped on the Pirates in the first, when a two-out RBI single by Cantu scored Ramirez, who had doubled. But after allowing three of the first five Fish to reach, Pirates starter Paul Maholm settled down and retired 15 of the final 17 he faced. Maholm (1-2) allowed one run on four hits and a walk during his six innings, striking out six.

"When Maholm is pitching well, you don't have to stress too much to have a big inning," Nady said. "You can kind of chip away.

"We were able to capitalize on getting a couple of guys on, and giving me an opportunity to sneak one in there."