The Astros have set things up so a 24-year-old and a 25-year-old will top their rotation should they advance to the playoffs. Is that too young? Can you win in the postseason with such inexperience? This is being done partly out of necessity as their starting pitching has been whacked by injuries. But mostly they're doing it because Roy Oswalt and Wade Miller are that good.

Oswalt, 24, is 14-2. Should he finish 15-2, he would have, by far, the highest winning percentage (.882) of any rookie pitcher in history with at least 15 wins. Miller, 25, is 16-7. Too young? No way.

Miller has been Houston's best pitcher this season; when Scott Elarton and Jose Lima struggled, it was Miller who became the ace of the staff. Oswalt has been one of the best pitchers in the game for the last three months. These two should pitch the biggest games of the regular season and the postseason.

There is precedent for building a rotation around two pitchers so young. The last team to go to the playoffs with its two top winners age 25 or younger was the 1991 Braves with Tom Glavine and Steve Avery. Together, they won 38 games that season -- Glavine was 20-11 while Avery was 18-8 -- and that team went to Game 7 of the World Series before losing.

"These are special kids," says Houston general manager Gerry Hunsicker. "We've watched them all year. I don't have any concerns (about inexperience). I worry about their health."

Oswalt, who pitched the first month of the season at Triple-A and didn't join the Astros' rotation until early June, will miss Sunday's start after pulling a groin muscle throwing in the bullpen before Tuesday night's start. Clearly, he wasn't right, and was pulled after two innings. Hunsicker is hopeful that Oswalt will only miss one start as the Astros can't afford for him to miss any more -- they have already lost pitchers Pedro Astacio and Carlos Hernandez for the season with arm injuries.

Shane Reynolds, who missed nearly three weeks in late August due to injury, and Dave Mlicki provide veteran arms down the stretch, but should the Astros make it to the playoffs, and Oswalt and Miller are 100 percent, chances are they will start Games 1 and 2 of the Division Series.

Last season, the Cardinals started a rookie, Rick Ankiel, in Game 1 of the Division Series against Atlanta. That was the day that started Ankiel's indescribable fit of wildness, which he still has not corrected on the major-league level. Was starting a game that big the reason that Ankiel lost all concept of the strike zone? Maybe, but probably not. In 1997, the Marlins started rookie Livan Hernandez in Game 1 of the World Series against Cleveland. He beat one of the game's great clutch pitchers, Orel Hershiser. He then beat him again in Game 5.

In 1985, Bret Saberhagen was 21 when he pitched two complete games, including a shutout in Game 7, in the World Series. Gregg Olson was 22, with 24 1/3 innings of relief experience in the minor leagues, when he became the Orioles closer in 1989. He had 27 saves, a 1.69 ERA and 90 strikeouts in 85 innings for a contender. When asked at the time if he was nervous pitching such important games down the stretch, he said, rhetorically, "Do I look nervous to you?"

Does Oswalt look nervous to you? He has rifled through National League hitters with relative ease, posting a 2.53 ERA while issuing just 24 walks and striking out 143 in 138 2/3 innings. He has an advantage: he played for the 2000 Olympic team -- pitching for your country would prepare anyone for the big leagues. He might have been the best pitcher on that Olympic team.

"He has been amazing, he has just blown through our system and competed on this level as well as he did in the minor leagues," said Hunsicker of Oswalt, who the Astros drafted in the 23rd round in 1996. "I think the Olympics really helped him. He pitched in front of 50,000 people. It's like in winter ball. Those guys are playing for their country. There is no more pressure than that. So, our guys have been battle-tested."

Now the Astros have two right-handers who throw 95 mph, and can strike you out with a variety of pitches. Miller, a 20th-round draft choice in 1996, also throws a cutter, a viscous slider and an overhand curveball.

"It's rare to find three young pitchers (the third being Carlos Hernandez) who know what they can do with a breaking ball," said Astros second baseman Craig Biggio. "We didn't baby these guys. If they can't handle it, we know what we got."

To replace Hernandez in the rotation, the Astros recalled Tim Redding, another young, hard-throwing right-hander with a great arm.

"Physically," says Hunsicker, "he's at the same level (as Oswalt and Miller)." He doesn't have their experience, however limited that is, but he has great ability."

If the Astros make it to the playoffs and to the World Series, they're going to get there with a rotation that's much more about talent than it is about experience.

Tim Kurkjian is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine and a regular contributor to Baseball Tonight. E-mail tim.kurkjian@espnmag.com.