Thrill of the hunt: Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland have the White Sox's sights on a world championship

"He's always been a guy who had a real upside," says one scout. "He has good delivery, good angle to the plate. He's pitching to both sides of the plate now. A.J. Pierzynski has really emphasized to their staff that you've got to pitch inside. That's helped their entire pitching staff a lot."

That includes Buehrle, who has a career-low 2.79 ERA and is walking just 1.45 per nine innings. "Without looking at the numbers, yeah, I would probably say this has been my best year," Buehrle says. "Pitching for this team has a lot to do with the success I've had--and that the whole pitching staff has had."

But that works both ways--the Sox know their fortunes will rest on their pitching and, perhaps, on the performances of Buehrle and Garland. The staff could carry the White Sox well into late October, perhaps even infringing on the start of hunting season. If that happens, there will be no complaints from either ace. "It's great to see Jon pitch like this," Buehrle says. "For a long time he was disappointed in the way things went. He's a guy we can count on now."

Best of the best? The White Sox will be counting on young aces Mark Buehrle and Jon Garland to get them into October and lead them on Entering the week, the two had better stats than the 1-2 combinations of potential A.L. playoff opponents:

Team        Combo                         W-L, ERA

White Sox   Buehrle, Garland              28-9, 3.07

The pair has one-third of an inning of postseason experience
combined (Buehrle in 2000).

Angles      Bartolo Colon, John Lackey    22-10, 3.63

Colon (2-1, 4.50) has been hittable since the All-Star break.

Red Sox     Matt Clement, David Wells     20-8, 4.56

There's also the Curt Schilling factor--whatever it is.

A's         Barry Zito, Rich Harden       20-12, 3.18

Zito, Harden and Danny Haren are 24-3 since May 31.

Yankees     Randy Johnson, Mike Mussina   21-14, 4.18

Johnson is 2-7 lifetime in Division Series and 5-1 in LCS
and World Series games.--S.D.

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