Yanks top Angels, Nova improves to 11-4

When he was recalled from the minors in late July, Ivan Nova said he wanted to make it difficult for the Yankees to remove him from the rotation.

The rookie is doing even better. He's making it nearly impossible.

Nova, while not nearly as dominant as he was last Thursday when he struck out a career-best 10 in Chicago, was still very good in a 9-3 victory over the Angels Wednesday night in front of 46,967 at the Stadium.

"That's how we told him to take it," Joe Girardi said of Nova's demotion July 3 to make room for Phil Hughes. "Force our hand ."

The 24-year-old Nova (11-4, 3.85 ERA) has won three straight starts since being recalled and he leads all rookies in victories, despite spending nearly all of July in the minors.

Wednesday night was, for lack of a better word, the worst of the three as he allowed three runs and five hits in six-plus innings.

But the outing, one in which he received plenty of run support -- including two home runs from Curtis Granderson to give him a career-best 31 and Robinson Cano coming within a single of hitting for the cycle -- encouraged Girardi. Nova didn't possess the nasty slider he did in Chicago but still mostly cruised through the first six innings before stalling in the seventh.

"I thought he used his fastball really effectively tonight," Girardi said. "He got a lot of ground-ball outs [14] and guys played good defense behind him. When you don't have your good stuff and you can do that, that's a sign of maturity."

Nova's slider had the White Sox flailing but that pitch wasn't there Wednesday night. The home run he allowed to Peter Bourjos in the fifth came on a slider as the righthander never got comfortable with the pitch.

"Once I knew my breaking ball wasn't there . . . you go the easy way," Nova said of relying on his sinker. "That shows you that you're growing up."

Nova is 7-0 with a 3.10 ERA in his last eight starts, his last loss coming June 3 at Anaheim.

"He pitched a great game," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "He got the lead and really pounded the strike zone."

Nova walked Torii Hunter to start the seventh, and Mark Trumbo and Vernon Wells singled, the latter's hit bringing in Hunter to make it 7-2. After Nova walked Alberto Callaspo to load the bases, Girardi called on Rafael Soriano to face Bourjos. Soriano induced a 6-6-3 double play, which brought Trumbo in to make the score 7-3, and got Jeff Mathis to fly to left. Soriano is perfect in five appearances, comprising five innings, since returning from the DL July 30.

"What he did in the seventh inning was huge," Girardi said.

Granderson's first homer was a three-run blast to right-center in the first off jittery Angels rookie Garrett Richards, called up a day earlier from Double-A to make his major-league debut. No. 31 came in the fifth, again off Richards, to set a career-best.

Cano hit his 19th homer in the seventh, a two-run shot to make it 9-3, and he was a single shy of becoming the first Yankee to hit for the cycle since Melky Cabrera did it Aug. 2, 2009, at Chicago. "During the game you'd love to do it but it's not something I was dying to do," Cano said. "The best thing is we won the game."