Minneapolis ? Just over a year ago, Johan Santana was being used out of the bullpen. When he pitches now, the Minnesota Twins don’t really need one.

Santana has entrenched himself at the top of the rotation, and the left-hander’s dominance this summer is helping Minnesota pull away in the AL Central. Chasing a third straight division title, the Twins took a season-high seven-game lead Saturday over the Chicago White Sox.

“Just to see how he makes the great batters look like they’ve never played before,” catcher Matthew LeCroy said, “it’s amazing.”

Entering Saturday’s start against Oakland, Santana was 8-2 with a 1.50 earned-run average and 112 strikeouts and just 33 hits allowed in his last 84 innings — spanning 11 outings. In the Twins’ 4-3 win Saturday, he improved to 11-6, allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out 10.

“I think everything right now is working very good for me,” Santana said. “I’m just doing my job. Whatever they ask me to do.”

It’s easy for superlatives to flow from teammates, but comments made by Santana’s opponents Sunday — after he beat Pedro Martinez and Boston 4-3 with 12 strikeouts while pitching two-hit ball for eight innings — were even more telling.

“He reminds me of myself when I was a little bit younger,” said Martinez, a three-time Cy Young award winner and six-time All-Star. “His stuff is probably a little bit better than mine at that age. I just hope he stays healthy and continues to pitch like he has been.”

Sounds like trouble for hitters around the league.

“That was the best pitching performance we’ve seen all year,” Red Sox leadoff man Johnny Damon said. “He was good before, but now — wow. There’s not a lot you can do.”

Minnesota pitcher Johan Santana delivers against Boston. Santana, shown Aug. 1 in Minneapolis, has hit his stride as a dominating starter.

Santana, 25, came into the season with a durability concern — he opened Game 1 of Minnesota’s playoff series against the Yankees in New York last year with four shutout innings before leaving because of leg cramps. He also needed surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow last fall, and his progress this spring was slow.

The scars on his arm still fresh, Santana struggled through April and May before bottoming out with a three-inning, seven-run outing against the White Sox in Chicago that increased his ERA to 5.60.

In his next throwing session, the mechanics finally clicked. A couple starts later, his streak began.

For Santana, success starts with throwing his 94-mph fastball for early strikes. That enables him to mix in a sharp slider and an excellent changeup that’s made more than one hitter look silly swinging at strike three.

“When you mix that with your fastball,” Santana said, “they don’t know what’s coming. It’s tough.”

Santana, who leads the AL in strikeouts, has pushed the Twins into the league lead in ERA.

In 2002, Santana started the season in Triple-A and refined his changeup with Edmonton pitching coach Bobby Cuellar. After a May call-up, he did well in spot starts that year and the next before the Twins finally found room for him in the rotation right before the All-Star break.

Since then, he’s been one of the league’s best — a Cy Young candidate if he keeps it up.

“I don’t really think about it,” he said. “If one day I have a chance to win one that would be cool … right now I’m just having fun, trying to win games and make it to the playoffs.”