PITTSBURGH - Only two players in major league baseball have been hotter at the plate in September than Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Jack Wilson.

So does he wish the 2005 season was just beginning?

"No way," Wilson said. "This is a lesson learned. This game is about staying in top condition physically and mentally.

"This coming off-season, when a day comes and I'm not doing anything and don't feel like working out - I'm going to remember this season."

Wilson, 27, is batting .423 (26 for 61) through 15 games this month. Only San Francisco's Randy Winn (.446) and the Yankees' Robinson Cano (.442) are hitting for a higher average in September.

Wilson is hitting at a .342 clip over his last 40 games, raising his batting average from .225 to .259.

By his own admittance, Wilson has not been 100 percent physically for much of the year. He underwent an appendectomy just before spring training that sapped him of some strength.

He spent the early months of the season getting that strength back.

"I was taking extra hitting, going to the gym, working with the strength coach," Wilson said. "I've been pulling pitches to left field with authority lately.

"That's the way I was hitting the ball last year."

Wilson hit .308 last year with 201 hits, including 41 doubles, 12 triples and 11 home runs.

His average wallowed below .230 in early August of this year.

"He's hitting again and he's playing with energy," Pirates interim manager Pete Mackanin said of Wilson. "Everybody goes into slumps during a season.

"There are always peaks and valleys. You just can't hang around in the valleys for too long."

Defensively, Wilson's game never left. He leads all National League shortstops with 481 assists, has helped the Pirates turn 176 double plays (second in NL to St. Louis' 186) and is second in the NL with a .983 fielding percentage.

Wilson has committed only 12 errors this season.

"He's still a young player himself, but Jack has been an all-star and he's the veteran in that clubhouse with all those young guys," Mackanin said. "Whether he likes to wear that moniker or not, he's the leader of this team."

Wilson has no problem with that - on the field.

"A lot of that comes with playing shortstop," he said. "I have to move guys around out there and I'm at the center of things," he said.

"At the same time, I'm not a real vocal guy in the clubhouse and it's hard to fire guys up when you're hitting .230."

That batting average is in the past now. Wilson has 29 RBI in his last 61 games, compared to 21 RBI in his first 84 games.

He attributes part of his offensive surge into moving back into the No. 2 spot in the batting order, which was his spot last year.

Wilson's lack of production early this season forced the Pirates to move him to the No. 8 spot in the order for much of the year.

"It really does make a difference," Wilson said. "Hitting eighth, you see maybe two or three fastballs per at bat. Hitting second, you get four or five.

"There's more urgency to getting a No. 2 batter out than a No. 8 batter."

Wilson has no trouble handling struggling with a low average at the plate while playing for a team that's low in the standings.

"Unfortunately, that's how it's been in my five years here," he said. "You don't like it to be that way, but you do your best to play hard and play your way through it.

"I've come to understand what Jason Kendall and Brian Giles went through year after year here."

Only Wilson sees change on the horizon - and on the faces of the young players who have arrived from Class AAA Indianapolis and Class AA Altoona.

"These guys can play and I'm excited they're here," Wilson said. "We need a balance of hitters and pitchers and that's what we're getting. I'm enthused about the future."

Just like he's enthused about regaining his batting stroke.

"It's about time," Mackanin said, forcing a smile.

Wilson seconds that motion.