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Today

• Game: Pirates (RHP Matt Morris 8-8, 4.41) vs. St. Louis Cardinals (RHP Joel Pineiro 3-2, 3.71), 8:10 p.m., Busch Stadium.
• TV/Radio: FSN Pittsburgh, WPGB-FM (104.7).
• Key matchup: Morris knows Albert Pujols well from their time as teammates, but that has not helped: Pujols is 6 for 9 against him, with two home runs and six RBIs.
• Of note: The Pirates' next pinch-hit home run will be their 10th, matching the franchise record set in 1996 and 2001.

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ST. LOUIS -- Jack Wilson was a mess leading up to Major League Baseball's trading deadline July 31. His days were consumed by chatter on the phone, sharing whispers about where he might wind up. He was tense, nervous and unable to sleep well, getting only 4 1/2 hours the night before the deadline.

It hurt his performance, too: He was slumping at the plate, struggling with the glove.

And the agony continued even after 4 p.m. passed that day without the expected deal to the Detroit Tigers, when Wilson answered waves of reporters' questions, then sat at his stall and tried in vain to collect himself.

"Dude," he confessed in an exasperated tone as he pulled on his spikes, "I have no idea how I'm going to go out there and play."

Suffice it to say he has figured it out.

Wilson clubbed a two-run home run, a double and two singles -- his 11th career four-hit game -- and had three RBIs in the Pirates' 11-0 annihilation of the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday at Busch Stadium.

That raised his post-deadline average to .370 -- 34 for 92 -- with half of his eight home runs and 17 of his 43 RBIs. It also raised his overall average to .275, well up from .249 on that deadline day.

Oh, and he has made just one error in that time.

Coincidence?

"No, probably not," Wilson said yesterday. "It was a big lift off my shoulders that day, knowing I wasn't seeing PNC Park for the last time, knowing I wouldn't have to move my family. Don't get me wrong: The idea of playing for a contender was intriguing. But uncertainty was ... it was beating me."

And now?

"I just feel good. I feel relaxed. Everything was over with, and I realized I might as well just go out and have fun."

Wilson was not the only one having fun in this one.

The Pirates broke out of a five-game losing funk in which they had scored a total of 13 runs by chasing former teammate Kip Wells after 3 1/3 innings, six runs and 10 hits. Jose Bautista started that with a solo home run in the first inning, his 14th, as he crushed a lifeless, poorly located fastball into the second deck above left field, and 10 of Wells' next 16 batters reached safely.

The Pirates were ahead, 6-0, before St. Louis manager Tony La Russa had seen enough.

"He put us in a big hole," La Russa said.

That has become painfully common. Wells is 6-16 with a 5.75 ERA and, as La Russa hinted by declining comment on the subject, might be booted from the Cardinals' rotation a second time, particularly now that they are back in contention.

Wells was roundly booed by the capacity crowd of 42,238, as has happened many other times this season.

"Having already been through the adversity I've had this year, it's not like I'm going to bury myself," Wells said.

Pirates manager Jim Tracy credited his team's approach, as most in the lineup stayed away from Wells' offerings off the plate. That was in stark contrast to the hack-at-everything method in their first two meetings, when Wells was 2-0 with a 0.75 ERA.

"There were a lot of really good at-bats," Tracy said.

Freddy Sanchez and Ronny Paulino stood out alongside Wilson, each delivering two doubles, a single and two RBIs.

The newcomers also contributed, leadoff man Nyjer Morgan reaching base three times and Steve Pearce getting his first RBI on a fifth-inning triple.

"They're playing here like they belong," Tracy said. "I love to see it."

Tracy evidently loved another offensive aspect, too: With men at first and second and nobody out in the fourth, Ian Snell squared up to bunt and drew the entire St. Louis infield toward him. As Wells went into the stretch, Snell pulled back the bat and smacked a ball into center field for an RBI.

"Great play," Tracy called it.

"I saw a big, old hole up the middle and just chopped it into the ground," Snell said.

The Pirates had a five-run fifth off reliever Andy Cavazos, batting for the cycle with a single, two doubles, a triple and Wilson's home run off Cavazos' 1-1 changeup and into the left-field foul pole. They also had two walks and a hit batsman, meaning they reached base safely every way possible in that inning except for catcher's interference.

All that offense overshadowed the staff's fourth shutout, led by Snell's seven quiet innings. He was not at his sharpest, allowing five hits and five walks, but he spread the hits and escaped two jams: One came in the third when Sanchez started a quality 4-6-3 double play off an Albert Pujols smash, the other in the fifth when Jim Edmonds flied out with bases loaded.