BETTER MAKE WAY FOR GENERATION K.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

The story of the early months of the baseball season is not, for once, the home-run hitters. It's a group of young starting pitchers who are shaking up the division races and altering the mood of the game.

Make way for Generation K.

In Chicago, it's 25-year-old Jon Garland and 26-year-old Mark Buehrle leading the White Sox to first place in the American League Central - and the best record in baseball - as a weekend series with Cleveland began.

In Florida, it's Dontrelle Willis, 23, and Josh Beckett, 25, accounting for 16 wins already as the Marlins got the jump on the creakier Atlanta Braves in the National League East.

In San Diego, it's Jake Peavy, 24, and Adam Eaton, 27, combining for a 12-1 record as the Padres rode a hot streak to the top of the NL West.

Right behind San Diego is Arizona, with Brandon Webb, 26, and Brad Halsey, 24, meeting expectations and the Diamondbacks exceeding them.

Then there are some examples that come as no surprise.

There's St. Louis, where one-time 21-game winner Mark Mulder, 27, and Jason Marquis, 26, are winning big again and so are the Cardinals. There's Minnesota, where reigning Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana, 26, and Carlos Silva, 26, are among the league leaders for the Twins.

Then there's the surprises. There's Baltimore, where the Orioles lead the AL East with Eric Bedard, 26, on the verge of doubling his career victories total before an injury, and Bruce Chen, 27, having a career year. Finally, there's Texas, with 6-foot-10 Chris Young, 26, playing an effective understudy to the seemingly ageless Kenny Rogers.

We're not just talking about the importance of pitchers. We're talking about the abundance of strong young pitchers. We're talking about the difference they've made in every division. Looking more mature than their counterparts in earlier generations, they're not merely heaving fastballs and stamping columns of ``K's'' and ``BB's'' in the score book, they're mastering the craft of winning.

``It seems like pitching goes in cycles,'' said Ned Yost, manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, who have lowered their team ERA by 0.70 thanks in large part to Chris Capuano, 26, and Victor Santos, 28. ``It's coming around, and now you're seeing more and more good young pitchers. I think pitching fell off (in the 1990s), and clubs concentrated on drafting pitchers and developing pitchers.''

A cynic would point out that the resurgence of pitching coincides with baseball's avowed crackdown on steroids and could be the result of a loss of slugging power.

That wouldn't explain why pitchers in their early and mid-20s seemed to make more than their share of the impact in April and May - and might have had more if not for injuries to the Chicago Cubs' Kerry Wood and Mark Prior.

A lot of older superstar pitchers have either been disappointing (Randy Johnson with the Yankees), injured (Curt Schilling in Boston) or marginalized by pitching for non-contenders (Roger Clemens in Houston, Pedro Martinez with the Mets).

Meanwhile:

--The 10 teams that went into Friday's games either in playoff position or within one game of first place had 15 starting pitchers age 27 and below with ERAs in the major leagues' top 50. That's 50 percent more than the playoff teams and near-misses had at the end of 2004. --The 15 teams that began Friday with improved winning percentages over the year before 17 had starting pitchers 27 and under with ERAs in the top 50. That's 34 percent higher than the corresponding figure from 2004.

The order of the day seems to be to infuse your rotation with young talent if you want to get better. It hasn't happened in Los Angeles. The Dodgers' Odalis Perez, 27, has been hurt, Brad Penny, 27, missed much of April, and Jeff Weaver, 28, can't keep the ball in the park. The Angels' John Lackey, 26, started weakly before coming on strong in May.

The locals' contribution to Generation K has been that they put the brakes on two of the season's longest win streaks. Garland (from Kennedy High of Granada Hills) was 8-0 before the Angels beat him behind Ervin Santana, 22, who showed he'll be a rotation fixture one day. Willis was 7-0 before the Dodgers beat him.

``A few years ago we would have been talking about several young position players (making an impact),'' said Dodgers manager Jim Tracy.

Baseball fans wondered when the sea change would occur, when the era of the home run would end and the day of the pitchers' duel would return. This could be the start.

How good could this get? The first half of the 1960s featured five future Hall of Famers in their early-to-mid 20s - Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry and Bob Gibson. The second half of the same decade brought the early seasons of eight more Hall of Famers - Don Sutton, Nolan Ryan, Steve Carlton, Catfish Hunter, Ferguson Jenkins, Phil Niekro, Jim Palmer and Tom Seaver.

Of course today's kids have a long way to go before we can compare them to the '60s' abundance of pitching talent.

Generation K might be up to the challenge.

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Photo:

Chicago's Jon Garland (Kennedy of Granada Hills) is one of several young pitchers excelling this year.

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images