An 18-game winner a year ago, the Brewers left-hander, 28, is a perfect 10-for-10 in quality starts and has been an every-five-day tonic for a pitching staff infected by injuries and inconsistent performances.

The Brewers need Capuano again on Friday, when they continue their longest road trip of 2006 (10 games, 11 days) with the first of three games in Philadelphia.

"It's only 10 starts, only a month and a half," Capuano cautioned. "But I definitely feel like I'm pitching better than I did at any point last year. I'm getting a lot more out of the game plan that we're going through before each game, and I'm starting to understand what [pitching coach Mike] Maddux is talking about when he talks about setting up hitters. I feel more comfortable out there."

In other words, his experience is starting to take hold.

Capuano is 5-3 and his 10 quality starts -- defined as outings of six or more innings and three or fewer earned runs -- tie him with the Yankees' Mike Mussina for most in the Majors.

Through Wednesday's games, Capuano ranked seventh in the National League with a 2.78 ERA, and fifth in strikeouts (60) and innings pitched (68). His $450,000 salary makes Capuano one of baseball's best bargains, though he is eligible for salary arbitration this winter and will get a hefty raise.

"It's so cliché when everyone says there is no substitute for experience, but it's so true, too," Capuano said. "You have to find the routine that works for you and makes you feel physically at your best every five days. It's trial and error."

Before last season, Capuano's career was filled mostly with trials. He underwent a "Tommy John" left elbow reconstruction in 2002, then worked his way up to the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2003 only to be traded to Milwaukee after the season, along with five others, for Richie Sexson.

It was an opportunity for Capuano, because the Brewers needed him in the big leagues. Capuano's arm was mostly healthy in 2004 but the rest of his body continuously broke down -- the result, he believes now, of overtraining.

"In the past, I was that guy who never stopped working out," Capuano said. "I think I've learned how to be more efficient with my workouts and my throwing. When I get my work done for the day, I can rest, and I accept the fact that I'm done for the day. Before, I always had to do something else."

It got to be too much. During 2004, Capuano was limited to 17 starts by various injuries to his quadriceps, triceps, and, most alarmingly, his surgically repaired elbow. In August, a decision was made to shut him down for the rest of the year.

"I think I hit a point in '04 where my body was like, 'Stop. You can't keep doing this every day,'" Capuano said.

He cut back on the weights and got into yoga. He now incorporates aspects of yoga -- including breathing and visualization exercises -- into his pregame routine. He's the Brewers' Zen master.

The new approach paid off in 2005. Capuano became the third Brewer in history to win 18 games, the first since Teddy Higuera, another lefty, did it in 1986. He made 35 starts and pitched a career-high 219 innings.

"He's very consistent," assistant general manager Gord Ash said. "He's got a good game plan, and he's smart enough to be able to go out there and execute."

"Smart" is a word often associated with Capuano, who speaks Spanish fluently and now is enjoying informal "phrase a day" lessons in Japanese from injured right-hander Tomo Ohka.

Capuano was the valedictorian of Cathedral High School in Springfield, Mass., then graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Duke University with a degree in economics. The Diamondbacks drafted Capuano in the eighth round in June 1999, but he finished school before reporting for duty in 2000.

Four seasons and one major elbow surgery later, he was the final name settled on to complete the Sexson trade.

"I don't think anyone could have said then that we were getting what we've got now," Ash said. "We knew we had a bona-fide Major Leaguer who was rotation-capable, but I'm not sure we saw a ceiling as high as it might be now."

How high has that ceiling been pushed? Manager Ned Yost, who is not exactly prone to exaggeration, has said that if Capuano continues his rapid rise he would be pushing into "Tom Glavine-type of status," referring to the future Hall of Famer now with the Mets.

Just a minute, Capuano says.

"That seems a little far away for me, talking about a guy like Tom Glavine," he said. "I'm happy that I've had a good couple of months to start the season, but I don't consider it a good accomplishment until you do it for several years over a whole career. That's the true test -- can you maintain a level of success for a full season or a full career? That's what guys [like Glavine] have done."

Capuano does not even consider himself the Brewers' ace, even with Ben Sheets healing on the disabled list along with Tomo Ohka and Rick Helling.

"What is an 'ace' defined as?" he asked. "If we were going to go into a playoff series tomorrow, and everybody is healthy, [Sheets] is the guy who would start Game 1 of that series, and nobody would refute that. He's got all of the stuff to be an ace.

"To me, an ace has got to have explosive stuff. He has the potential to go out every time and throw a no-hitter."

Capuano does not regard himself in that way. But he admitted that losing Sheets, Ohka and Helling, and the resulting stress on the starting rotation and bullpen, has had an effect.

"It can't help but affect you," Capuano said. "We're a team that depends on the health and the productivity of a few guys, our horses. [Geoff] Jenkins and [Carlos] Lee, our RBI guys. Sheets, our ace. Ohka, a veteran guy who you can count on to keep you in the game nine times out of 10.

"We all have to put our head down and keep plodding through until we can get everyone back."