Yankees beat up the Halos

Bryan Hoch MLB.com

NEW YORK -- On the afternoon that Ivan Nova checked back into his Yankee Stadium locker, he brought a silent proclamation. The Yankees weren't going to have any reason to send him back to the Minor Leagues.

So far, Nova has pitched as though he intends to honor that promise. The right-hander won for the third time since being called back up, whipping six-plus strong innings on Wednesday as the Yankees trounced the Angels, 9-3.

"You never want to go back," said Nova, who leads all big league rookies with 11 victories. "When I got back here, that's one of the first things that I said: 'I don't want to go back.' It's not good to have to take a bus for eight, nine hours. That's never good."

With two homers, Curtis Granderson set a new career high of 31, pacing a Bombers offensive attack that also saw Robinson Cano go deep as Nova cemented his place in a muddled rotation picture.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi has committed to keeping Nova in the rotation, so he must instead decide between nixing A.J. Burnett or Phil Hughes to whittle the team's six starters down to a five-man staff in the very near future.

"I think he's made great strides since last year as a starter," Girardi said of Nova. "There were times where big innings got away from him. I think he's just become more consistent. I think he took it as a challenge that, 'This would be the last time you're able to send me down.'"

Lacking a good slider on Wednesday, Nova relied on his sinking fastball to induce 14 groundouts among the 18 outs he recorded, an in-game audible that the Yankees took as a major sign of maturity.

"He's been incredible," catcher Russell Martin said. "Today, stuff-wise, was probably his least-good stuff that he's had so far [since being recalled]. But he was still able to pitch and compete out there. He's just focused out there, no matter if he's got his 'A' game or not. He's competing, and I think it shows."

Peter Bourjos put the Angels on the board with a fifth-inning solo home run, and Vernon Wells' seventh-inning RBI single brought around their second run before a tiring Nova was pulled with the bases loaded and no outs.

Nova tipped his cap to the crowd after receiving a warm ovation and said that he battled despite not having his best stuff.

"I think that shows you that you're growing up in the game," Nova said. "When you have the command of all your pitches, of course you feel good. You have to feel good when you have [only] one pitch."

Rafael Soriano continued to perform dominantly since returning from the disabled list, inducing a run-scoring double play and a flyout to squelch the rally.

Nova scattered three runs on five hits, walking three without a strikeout. Though the Yankees are still more than a month away from having to decide, they can see him holding his own in a postseason situation.

"If he keeps doing what he's doing, I don't see why not," Martin said. "He's going up against good lineups, too, and he's getting outs."

The Yankees knocked around right-hander Garrett Richards for six runs and six hits in five innings, spoiling the hurler's Major League debut.

Called up from Double-A Arkansas, Richards walked Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter to start the game before Granderson slugged a three-run blast off the top of the outfield fence.

"I thought the first two walks were big because we made the young man work hard and put him in a tough situation," Girardi said. "You can obviously see why the Angels like him; he's got good stuff, he does. But your Major League debut at Yankee Stadium is a tough call."

The victory was the Yankees' first against a pitcher making his Major League debut since May 1, 2004, when they defeated the Royals' Eduardo Villacis. New York had lost its last six such meetings.

"You walk out, and it kind of takes your breath away for a second," Richards said. "But it was fun making my first MLB start here. They're a really good team, and you grow up watching all those guys on TV. Being able to throw against them, it was a lot of fun."

Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez contributed run-scoring hits in the fourth off Richards, who also served up Granderson's second homer in the sixth, allowing the center fielder to eclipse his previous career high of 30 set in 2009 with the Tigers.

"I'm happy I was able to get to that point, but it definitely was not a goal by any means," Granderson said. "I didn't go in saying I wanted to hit X amount of home runs."

Martin tacked on an RBI single off Joel Pineiro in the sixth. Cano added a two-run homer, his 19th, in the seventh and finished a single shy of the cycle.

"For me, it's not in my mind," said Cano, whose friend Melky Cabrera had the Yankees' last cycle, in 2009. "When you're in the game, you would love to do it, but it's not something I was trying to do. The best thing is to win a game, and that's what we're doing."

Undefeated in his last eight starts, Nova said news of his 11th win would travel quickly back home to San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. With that, he tacked on another promise -- that there'll be more to come.

"I remember when I left my house in the D.R. this year, they told me they just want 10," Nova said. "They told me that as a rookie, in this division, 10 games is a lot. I don't think it's a lot. I want more."