Marquis watched teammate after teammate will the Cubs to seven wins in the first nine games of their homestand.

Marquis added his name to that list, as the Cubs ended their home stay with a 4-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday afternoon.

Marquis (2-3) broke a string of three straight losses with his first quality start since April 24. He held the Pirates to three runs -- two earned -- in six innings on four hits and one walk.

"[I was] focusing in on pounding the strike zone, getting ahead early, expanding the zone and having the hitter at my mercy," Marquis said. "It feels good to get a win and feel like you're finally contributing to this team's winning ways."

After Marquis left, Bob Howry, Carlos Marmol and Kerry Wood combined to preserve a one-run lead over the final three innings.

The offense scratched out four singles and squeezed out scores thanks to seven walks, a timely hit-and-run and a double steal.

Kosuke Fukudome and Ronny Cedeno recorded RBI singles, while Alfonso Soriano and Reed Johnson tallied sacrifice flies.

"What we had was a pitching duel going on, but we found a way to scrap and play the game and do the little things and get those runs in," said Johnson, who epitomized the small-ball day by drawing a walk and scoring in the third, and hitting his sacrifice fly the next inning.

"When you look up late in the game, and we have four hits and four runs -- that's pretty good production any time you can match your runs and hits."

While the offense grinded, Marquis efficiently kept eight Pirates at bay. He just had a little trouble with first baseman Adam LaRoche, who drove in all of Pittsburgh's runs. LaRoche had his second-straight stong game, lining a two-run homer to left in the first and adding an RBI single in the sixth.

But it wasn't enough. All five Cubs starters picked up victories on the homestand. The win meant a lot to Marquis, who lowered his ERA from 5.26 to 4.96.

"It's huge," catcher Geovany Soto said. "He had a really good outing. All he can do is just build from this."

Carlos Zambrano and Ryan Dempster have been aces at the top of the rotation. Ted Lilly has been on a strikeout binge this month, and Sean Gallagher snared his rotation spot with a strong performance on Friday.

If Marquis can just get going, Cubs manager Lou Piniella will have a lethal arsenal of arms at his disposal.

"Marquis gave us what we needed," Piniella said. "We'd like to get him on a little bit of a roll. He gave up two runs in the first. ... Then he held on until the sixth. We'd take six [innings], no question. Six innings of three-run ball, you can win with that. ... Now, we'd like to see seven innings of three-run ball."

The Cubs figured out Pirates starter Phil Dumatrait (1-2) in the third. The bottom of the order worked walks on a combined 14 pitches to load the bases for the sizzling Soriano.

Soriano drove in Mark DeRosa with a sacrifice fly, and Cedeno followed with a single to score Johnson and tie the game at 2.

Johnson scored DeRosa with a sacrifice fly the next inning after DeRosa and Fukudome combined for a double steal.

In the fifth, Fukudome brought home Derrek Lee with a looping single over shortstop Brian Bixler to give the Cubs a 4-2 lead.

The three relievers held on, and Wood earned his 10th save. Marmol starred after taking the loss on Saturday. He struck out Nate McLouth, LaRoche and Xavier Nady in the eighth.

McLouth cracked a two-run homer off Marmol to break a ninth-inning tie in the Pirates' only win against the Cubs in nine games this season. McLouth also homered off Marmol earlier in the year.

"Yeah, [I was] a little excited to get [McLouth] out," Marmol said. "It feels great to take out a guy who hits you all the time. We've got a good bullpen, no doubt about it. We did our job today."

Micah Hoffpauir made his Major League debut pinch-hitting for Marquis in the sixth and struck out.

Considering Lee and Aramis Ramirez went a combined 0-for-22 during the series, the Cubs gladly took two out of three before heading out of town.

"When you get good pitching, you don't need to hit nearly as much," Piniella said. "That was a wonderful homestand for us."