Baseball is a game of pitching first. Hitting and defense must be there, but without the pitching, the rest falls apart.

As the postseason approaches, pitching is not a settled matter with many of the probable playoff teams. That is somewhat unusual since there are generally three starters each playoff team can point to without hesitation.

The American League is filled with starter questions for the impending division series.

The Red Sox may finish with the best record in the AL, but who pitches come October? Josh Beckett and then, well, that’s a problem.

Tim Wakefield certainly seems a lock, but that may depend on his finish, or do the Sox just put him in and hope the knuckler knuckles and the run support continues?

Daisuke Matsuzaka is suffering from innings pitched. He is not the same pitcher he was at the start of the year. In his last five starts before Friday’s game against the New York Yankees, he was 1-4 with a 9.57 ERA.

Curt Schilling is a mystery at the moment. He may finish strong and be better than ever with the DL time having rested the arm. He is not the power pitcher of old but can hit corners with the best of them. He saves the big heat for crucial moments.

Sunday night Schilling against Roger Clemens will be interesting.

Would one dare throw rookie no-hit star Clay Buchholtz as a postseason starter? Sox pitching coach John Farrell told me, “He has ice in his veins.” Make no mistake, he is not hanging around the bullpen just for the heck of it.

The Angels have John Lackey, who has lost three of his last four decisions, and Kelvim Escober, whose concentration span is suspect.

Ervin Santana probably won’t make the postseason roster and Bartolo Colon has already been told he is in the ‘pen. That leaves Jered Weaver.

Cleveland has ground-ball pitcher supreme Fausto Carmona (16 wins) and C.C. Sabathia (17 wins). Cleveland would like to just rotate them in starts and nobody wants to play the Indians in that one long division series that has the extra day off.

They follow with 15-game winner Paul Byrd and hold off Jake Westbrook depending on the matchup. Beware the Indians.

The Yankees have Chien-Ming Wang. And then?

Roger Clemens says he is ready, but he has had to shut it down with a bad arm once already in less than a half year of pitching.

Mike Mussina and Andy Pettitte are nursing along the ends of careers and may be fine, but ….

There is parity around baseball the likes of which has not been seen over the last 100 years. That’s why so many teams have been in the chase for October for so long.

Part of that parity has been brought on by the dearth of pitching.

Even the postseason teams have decisions to make, mostly about pitching, and about 15 games in which to do so.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.