Nova, four-run first lift Yanks over Reds

CINCINNATI -- He took the mound in the bottom of the first inning with a four-run lead Monday night, but Ivan Nova didn't inspire much confidence.

The first two Reds batters reached on solid singles, and the game appeared to be one in which the Yankees' offense would have to carry the day.

Instead, Nova did.

The rookie righthander promptly induced a double-play ball, and although he allowed a first-inning run, that would be all he gave up in the Yankees' 5-3 victory in front of a sellout crowd of 41,173 at Great American Ball Park.

"He has a lot of talent,'' Joe Girardi said of Nova, who lifted his record to 7-4. "It's just learning how to harness that talent and use all his pitches and continue to develop his pitches as he moves forward.''

Nova, who has won his last three decisions, had his best outing of the season. He retired 23 of the final 26 hitters he faced, giving up only two hits in his final seven innings and allowing the other baserunner on a strikeout/wild pitch.

Nova did not walk a batter for the first time in his 21 major-league starts and struck out a season-best seven in a season-high eight innings.

After a poor start by Nova May 28 in Seattle, Girardi challenged him to stop being exclusively a fastball-curveball pitcher. Nova excelled at that Monday night.

"That's the first time I've seen him have both his curveball and his slider going,'' Russell Martin said.

Nova, who threw 70 of his 105 pitches for strikes, said he felt especially good with his changeup and slider. "I felt really, really, really strong tonight,'' he said. "I was commanding all of my pitches.''

After singles by Drew Stubbs and Brandon Phillips, the first two batters Nova faced, put runners on first and third, he got the dangerous Joey Votto to ground into a 4-6-3 double play on a changeup. A run scored, but there would be no more threats against Nova the rest of the way.

"I thought that was a huge at-bat in the game,'' Girardi said.

Yankees reliever Luis Ayala started the ninth with a 5-1 lead, but he allowed a single by Phillips and Boone Logan hit Votto in the upper back with his first pitch to create a save situation.

Although he didn't allow any of the four batters he faced to hit the ball out of the infield, Mariano Rivera allowed the two inherited runners to score on an infield single and a forceout. But he picked up his 18th save, striking out pinch hitter Edgar Renteria, last year's World Series MVP, with a runner on second to end it.

The Yankees (42-29) have won nine of 11 games, including the last three after beginning this six-game trip with a loss to the Cubs on Friday afternoon.

The Yankees got first-inning hits from Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Andruw Jones, who got the start in left instead of Brett Gardner when the lefthanded Wood got the call to replace the Reds' original starter, Johnny Cueto, whose neck stiffened up before the game.

Of the five hits in the inning, one came on an 0-and-2 pitch, two on 1-and-2 pitches and one on a 2-and-2 pitch. Rodriguez singled in a run, Cano doubled home another, Martin drove in a run with a grounder and Jones had a two-out RBI single as Wood was forced to throw 34 pitches.

Jones ended the third inning by grounding into a 5-4-3 double play and rolled his left ankle on the swing, the reason he was thrown out by a mile at first despite a hard takeout slide at second by Martin. He stayed in and later said he was fine. So did A-Rod, who had two hits but was replaced by pinch runner Ramiro Peña in the eighth.

"He's beat up,'' Girardi said of Rodriguez, who has been battling soreness in his left shoulder of late. The plan is for him to play Tuesday night and, perhaps, get Wednesday's day game off.

"There's a lot of guys that are banged up,'' said Rodriguez, hitting .344 (43-for-125) with seven homers and 22 RBIs in his last 31 games. "Like I talked about yesterday, it's part of the long summer. I don't think there's a guy in major league baseball that feels 100 percent right now, and I'm no exception.''