FORT MYERS, FLA. — One of the loudest sounds on Saturday happened when Miguel Sano squared up a Kyle Lobstein pitch in the fourth inning and drove it hard off the wall in left field for a double. Fortunately, the wall survived.

Twins manager Paul Molitor couldn't resist cracking a joke when a reporter asked him which sound was louder, the ball hitting Sano's bat or the ball hitting the wall.

''Or the sound of him running,'' Molitor said while chuckling after the Twins beat Pittsburgh 3-0 at Hammond Stadium. ''His approach today was really good off the lefty. He took a lot of tough pitches. When he got in counts in his favor ... I wasn't sure he was going to make it to second, it got out there so quickly.''

Sano was 1-for-2 with a walk Saturday and is batting .294 with a .478 on-base percentage.

You can't handle the Plouffe

Third baseman Trevor Plouffe was 2-for-4 against the Pirates with a two-run single. It comes on the heels of a two-home run game Friday.

Plouffe leads the Twins in hits (15), home runs (four) and RBI (14). He's also batting .375.

He appears to be peaking at the right time, if you believe in such a thing.

''If you don't get hot at the end, I don't think it is particularly a bad sign for certain people,'' Molitor said. ''I think anybody would like to go into the spring feeling good about how they are swinging the bat. I've seen it work both ways.

''A guy hits .090 in the spring and he hits eight home runs in April. And the same way guys can hit .450, then can't buy a hit the first couple of weeks. But you want to see guys putting good swings on the ball, especially when they are in hitters' counts and pitches they can handle. And he's been doing that pretty well the last week.''

Leaving Florida

The Twins will play five more games in Florida before heading to Washington to play a pair of exhibition games at Nationals Park. They then head up the beltway to open the regular season in Baltimore.

The Twins would have preferred to remain in Florida until spring training is over. But they had no choice, as all the teams relatively close to them in Florida are leaving early to play exhibition games.

The Red Sox, who train in Fort Myers, will finish spring training in Montreal while playing Toronto. Baltimore, which trains in Sarasota, is playing at Philadelphia. Pittsburgh, which trains in Bradenton, is playing Cincinnati in Indianapolis.

''Unfortunately, there wasn't anyone to play,'' Twins General Manager Terry Ryan said. ''That's as honest of an answer as I can give you. So we had to go elsewhere. We're opening up in Baltimore, which makes it a nice transition. I don't particularly like to barnstorm. I don't think our manager does either. But we were stuck.''

On deck

The Twins will head to Tampa on Sunday to face the Yankees. Righthander Phil Hughes will face his former team. Righthander Nathan Eovaldi will start for the Yankees.