Ben Revere is everywhere these days. And deservedly so. The rookie outfielder has been swinging a hot bat and making highlight-reel catches with pretty good regularity as the Minnesota Twins have won nine of their last 11 games.

He’s the posterboy of the recent stretch, doing interviews on MLB Network and the like.

I’m not here to take anything away from him. He’s hit .292 since June 2, when the Twins started to make their run. In fact, I sang his praises last week in a post.

But I do think one aspect of the team is being overlooked, and that’s the starting pitching.

In their last 11 games, Twins starters are averaging nearly 7 innings per start, posting an ERA of 2.09 during that stretch.

Starters are measured in a couple of ways: 1) Keeping runs off the scoreboard. 2) Work deep into ballgames. And for the Twins, the latter could not be more important. The Twins bullpen ranks last in Major League Baseball with a 4.84 ERA.

The starters – and manager Ron Gardenhire - are getting the message: Keep the relievers off the field.

In seven of those 11 games, the Twins starter has gone at least 7 innings. Their record in those games: 7-0.

Francisco Liriano, Carl Pavano and Scott Baker have pitched brilliantly in the last couple of weeks. Nick Blackburn has been solid. Brian Duensing got roughed up his last time out, but threw eight shutout innings the start before that.

Pavano takes the mound tonight with the Twins having cut their deficit in the AL Central down to single digits. How well he and the rest of the staff does will be the biggest factor in whether or not the Twins can come back.

The Minnesota Twins are playing their best baseball of the season, and a big reason for that has been the suddenly hot play of outfielder Ben Revere.

Revere has had a couple different stints with the Twins since debuting as a September call-up last year. The former first-round pick has hit better than .300 at every level of the minor leagues, but in his first couple of stints with the big club, he has shown flashes but hasn’t put together a consistent run of good play.

Ben Revere has given the Twins some speed and offense in the last week. Associated Press photo

He was hitting .242 when he got sent down to Triple-A Rochester by the Twins in late May. But since returning to the team on June 2, Minnesota has won six of seven games. And during that time, Revere has started every one of them, hitting 11-for-30 (.367 BA) with five runs, two steals and four RBIs. In Wednesday afternoon’s win over Cleveland, Revere had three hits, stole a base and drove in the winning run in the 10th inning.

With all of the injuries the Twins have had, Revere will likely get all of the playing time he can handle. And he seems like the kind of player that manager Ron Gardenhire will fall in love with. He’s got that Nick Punto-like build with that Jacque Jones-like constant smile. Gardy is smitten.

And moving forward beyond this year, the Twins really do need Revere. Their minor league system is full of impact outfield prospects, but none that are expected to be ready for the majors any sooner than 2013 or 2014.

And after this season, the contracts of Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel expire, meaning that Revere almost certainly will be an everyday player in 2012 if he continues to put up strong numbers this season. And the nice thing about Revere – unlike Kubel and Cuddyer – is even when he’s not hitting, he gives you a solid glove in the field with great range. Not much of an arm, but that’s about the only criticism so far of his defense.