BRADENTON, Fla. -- Ian Snell's final tuneup before the Pirates' season opener started sluggish but ended up well enough.

He allowed two runs and six hits in his six scheduled innings of the 7-3 victory against the Minnesota Twins this afternoon at McKechnie Field, with almost all of that damage coming early. He retired 10 of his final 11 batters, and the lone exception to reach base came on an infield single.

"It got better as it went along," Snell said, smiling. "It was good."

Snell's final spring ERA through six starts was 4.01.

His next outing will come Monday in Atlanta, the first opener of his young career.

"I'm ready," Snell said. "Let's get this thing going."

Manager John Russell saw it the same way.

"He looks like everything's working for him right now," Russell said.

Snell opened the game with a five-pitch walk and was hit fairly hard in the first three innings. That included Jon Knott's line-drive home run in the second, and back-to-back doubles by Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer in the third that gave Minnesota a 2-0 lead.

The Pirates' lineup, looking much like what Russell might use in Atlanta, was hitless through three but took a 3-2 lead off Kevin Slowey in the fourth on four consecutive two-out hits, including Adam LaRoche's RBI double to the fence in center.

Luis Rivas' hustling double in the fifth led to another run when he advanced one base each on sacrifice bunts by Snell and Jack Wilson.

Marino Salas relieved Snell in the seventh and gave up a run.

Byung-Hyun Kim had been scheduled to pitch that inning but was held out because of an illness. He left the park during the game.

Damaso Marte entered in the eighth to protect the 4-3 lead and gave up two singles but stranded the runners.

The Pirates added three in the bottom half on Jorge Velandia's RBI single, a Minnesota error and Matt Cavagnaro's RBI single.

That rally foiled Matt Capps' first chance at a save, but he still wrapped it up tidily, wrapping two strikeouts around a double he gave up.

Nate McLouth, back after missing three games to strep throat, went 0 for 3 at the plate with two strikeouts, but he made an excellent catch to rob Jason Kubel in the fourth. McLouth had been shading Kubel to left but sprinted to right-center and dived face-first into the grass to come up with the ball.

"It felt like a long way," McLouth said.

The sellout crowd of 6,020 gave McLouth a standing ovation as he returned to the dugout.

Jason Bay went 2 for 3 to raise his spring average to .255 and continued to look even more comfortable at the plate than his statistics would suggest. Of particular note: He has been driving the ball to the opposite field, a trait he had when he was far more successful than in 2007.

"It's just a matter of going out there and not thinking too much about what you're doing," Bay said. "There are times in this game when you can get too tight and not be yourself. I feel like I'm getting back to being myself."

Ronny Paulino also had two hits off the bench, including a double.

The Pirates are 10-16 in Grapefruit League play.

Elsewhere, injured second baseman Freddy Sanchez went to the Pirate City minor-league complex to take nine at-bats. His ailing shoulder will be reevaluated today to determine when he can throw again.

"Until we know that, I'm not going to know anything," Sanchez said. "Right now, I'm just anxious to find out what's wrong, why I've had the pain and when I can play."

Tomorrow, Zach Duke will start against the Detroit Tigers' Dontrelle Willis, 1:05 p.m. in Bradenton, Fla.

More details in tomorrow's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.