Nova proving he belongs in rotation

Mariano Rivera dressed quietly Wednesday night, doing so without a cluster of media shifting restlessly behind him waiting to talk -- unlike after the previous two games and the subsequent one, for that matter.

So he was as good a person as any to ask about Ivan Nova, the dominant topic of the evening, and the closer was happy to weigh in. Said Rivera, "He's proving he belongs here."

Of course, Nova already was on his way to doing that before he was sent to the minors July 3.

Nova's response then, and since being brought back, has gone over well in the clubhouse.

"He was disappointed but he knew he didn't do anything wrong," Rivera said. "It was just bad luck at the time."

Nova, 24, got squeezed in a numbers game in early July as Phil Hughes returned from the disabled list July 3. Before being sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Nova was unbeaten in his last five decisions, with his final start a victory July 1 in which he allowed one run in five innings against the Mets.

"He's proved that he can pitch at this level," Robinson Cano said Wednesday.

Outside of April, when Nova went 1-2 with a 5.82 ERA, he certainly has, steadily getting better and better. He went 3-1 with a 3.90 ERA in May, 3-1 with a 3.58 ERA in June and 2-0 with a 2.25 ERA in July.

"He's making adjustments, he's throwing a lot of strikes," Rivera said. "He's challenging the hitters and he's trusting his stuff. When you do that and you have the ability to pitch, a lot of good things will happen."

How Nova (11-4, 3.85 ERA) did it Wednesday impressed his teammates and, especially, his manager. Without the darting slider that was his primary swing-and-miss pitch in his previous start in Chicago -- when Nova struck out a career-high 10 -- the rookie had to make the adjustments Rivera referenced. The primary adjustment was to go mostly with his fastball, which often acts like a sinker. The results were 14 ground-ball outs through six innings (Nova started the seventh but did not record an out).

Joe Girardi has said Nova took his demotion "like a man," but the pitcher did publicly disagree with it, telling one publication after arriving in Scranton, "I don't think it was the right decision."

Still, Nova shook off the disappointment and worked on improving his arsenal, focusing on the slider that was so good in his return July 30 against Baltimore and then, most memorably, in Chicago. After striking out 10 White Sox batters, Nova said the unwanted demotion was "probably good" for him.

He, of course, has no desire to go back to Triple-A and is doing exactly what Girardi, who kept in touch with the rookie while he was in Scranton, told him to do upon his recall.

"Force our hand," Girardi said. Meaning, pitch well and make it next to impossible to remove him.

And so another numbers game will squeeze out a starter, as Girardi's plan is to get back to a five-man rotation next week. But before Wednesday's game, Girardi said Nova was guaranteed to make his next start, so this time around it will be either A.J. Burnett or, more likely, Hughes who is squeezed out.

Nova, though, doesn't take it for granted. "You have to keep fighting because you never know what's going to happen," he said. "For me, I have to keep thinking if I pitch bad, I maybe lose my spot in the rotation. So I have to keep pitching good . . . When I got back here, that's one of the first things I said: I don't want to go back."