MLB

Yankees’ Nova makes debut vowing to ‘attack’

TAMPA — If Phil Hughes can’t post the first trip through the rotation, Ivan Nova would have to turn into Jeff Juden to not make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster.

Nevertheless, if Hughes’ back issue doesn’t land him on the disabled list, then Nova and David Phelps will compete for the fifth spot in manager Joe Girardi’s rotation.

The loser could land in the bullpen as a long reliever and spot starter. Or he could be sent to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to start.

Nova, who has won 28 games in two big league seasons, made his spring debut yesterday at a cold George M. Steinbrenner Field and made up some of the ground Phelps had taken by hurling five scoreless innings in two starts.

After control problems put him in too many bad counts last year (194 hits in 170 1/3 innings) when Nova went 12-8 with a sloppy 5.02 ERA, Nova made shortening his arm action and throwing strikes his spring training priorities.

“It’s something I have to do, throw strikes,’’ said Nova, who stuck mainly with the fastball and curve during the a scoreless two-inning, 27-pitch outing (22 strikes). “You have to attack the hitter. Nobody told me, I am a grown man. [Last year] I wasn’t attacking the hitters. You have to work on it and do the best you can.’’

Nova gave up a hit, whiffed one and didn’t issue a walk.

PHOTOS: YANKEES SPRING TRAINING

According to pitching coach Larry Rothschild, Nova began working on shortening his arm action before camp opened.

“It was something we worked on before spring training,’’ Rothschild said. “He actually had done it with his curveball a lot. That made it a little bit easier to introduce.’’

Catcher Chris Stewart, who hit a two-run homer, saw a more compact arm action from Nova.

“The long motion is hard to repeat,’’ Stewart said. “This year it’s shorter and can be repeated.

Spring training is a time to work on things. But how will Nova respond when pitching in stadiums with two decks?

“The test will be when the adrenaline is going and will he be able to maintain,’’ Rothschild said of the shorter delivery.

When Nova went 16-4 with a 3.70 ERA as a rookie in 2011 — though he spent a month in the minors — he showed signs of being more than a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Yet, after starting 2012 with three straight victories and declaring himself “the best pitcher in the world,’’ Nova fell apart and spent three weeks on the disabled list with an inflamed right rotator cuff. He wasn’t on the roster for the ALDS or ALCS.

“Hopefully we see the guy of two years ago with confidence, throws strikes and dares them to hit him,’’ Stewart said.