Royals thrash Nova and Yankees, 11-5

Strong performances by the pitching staff have masked the Yankees' offensive deficiencies of late, but that was not the case in their 11-5 loss to the Royals at Yankee Stadium.

Ivan Nova (3-3) left his team in an 8-0 hole before exiting with none out in the fourth inning, having allowed 10 hits, including two homers. He gave up six runs, four of them unearned, in the second inning.

The deficit was too much to overcome for the Yankees, who didn't get a runner on base until Robinson Cano homered with one out in the fifth to ignite a four-run inning. Reliever Amaury Sanit was charged with another three runs in 42/3 innings.

"I didn't think he had his good stuff,'' Joe Girardi said of Nova. "I don't think he had a good curveball tonight . . . and his fastball was up in the zone.''

The Yankees were knocked out of first place for the first time since April 13, falling a game behind Tampa Bay.

After being outhit 12-4 in their 4-3, 11-inning victory over the Yankees on Wednesday night, the Royals outhit the Yankees 16-8 to win a series in the Bronx for the first time since 1999.

Billy Butler had four hits and two RBIs and Eric Hosmer added three hits and two RBIs for the Royals. Hosmer, 21, playing his sixth major-league game, hit his second homer in two nights, added an RBI double and wound up 4-for-12 with four RBIs in the series. Former Yankees Melky Cabrera and Wilson Betemit each had two hits, with Cabrera hitting his second home run of the series.

Cano, who was hit in the batting helmet by a pitch the previous night, hit his ninth home run with one out in the fifth to break up Sean O'Sullivan's perfect game. Alex Rodriguez homered for the first time in 65 at-bats, hitting his sixth of the season in the eighth. Francisco Cervelli had a bases-loaded double to leftfield during the fifth-inning outburst.

Coming off three strong starts, Nova faltered early. He hardly was the sole culprit, as errors by Cano and Cervelli contributed to the six-run second. "That inning was the whole game,'' said Cervelli, who also had two passed balls Thursday night.

"It's just not good baseball,'' Girardi said. "You're not used to seeing [Cano] throw the ball away. Then [Cervelli] threw the ball away, Nova doesn't field the double-play ball . . . We just gave them too many outs. You can't beat teams when you give them that many outs.''

Said Nova: "The inning was kind of difficult for me . . . I'd take myself out of the game.''

Nova had dazzled May 6 against Texas, limiting the Rangers to one run and two hits in 71/3 innings. But on Nova's first pitch of the second inning, Hosmer blasted a fastball to rightfield for a 1-0 lead. He had hit his first major-league homer Wednesday night, accounting for the only hit in seven innings off A.J. Burnett.

Nova missed the strike zone on his first pitch of the fourth inning -- and on his next three pitches, Cabrera homered, Alex Gordon doubled and Butler singled him home. Nova then was replaced by Sanit, 31, who was called up earlier in the day and made his major-league debut.

Buddy Carlyle, who took the loss Wednesday night after walking the leadoff batter in the 10th and 11th innings and allowing a run to score each time, allowed a two-out, two-run double to Alcides Escobar in the eighth before picking up three strikeouts in the ninth.

"You've got to give credit to their side,'' Curtis Granderson said. "We made two errors, but at the same time, they swung the bats really well . . . We had at-bats throughout the first part of the game where we didn't get anyone on base.''