HIP, HIP JORGE! Jorge Posada belts a ground-rule double to drive home Alex Rodriguez during the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the Angels last night. (Reuters)
ANAHEIM, Calif. — Ivan Nova pitched well enough last night to stay in the Yankees’ rotation. He did not, however, hurl the Yankees to a victory over the Angels.
Though manager Joe Girardi said Nova wasn’t pitching “for his spot” at Angel Stadium, the right-hander was shaky in three of his last four outings and awful in his previous start. Established veterans can live on that edge in the instant gratification Yankees universe; neophytes can’t. So when Nova gave up two runs in the first inning, it wasn’t a reach to figure Adam Warren could be elevated from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or Hector Noesi would be brought in from the bullpen to replace Nova as the fifth starter.
Yet, when Nova left in the seventh, the Yankees trailed by just one run on the way to a 3-2 loss in front of 42,521.
The defeat halted the Yankees’ season-high four-game winning streak. Combined with the second-place Red Sox winning, the Yankees’ AL East lead was shaved to one game. Derek Jeter went 0-for-3 and remains 16 hits shy of 3,000.
Nova pitched well enough to win, but the Yankees were held to two runs in seven innings by winner Jered Weaver, who broke a personal four-game losing streak and hadn’t posted a win since April 25. Weaver is 7-4.
Nova, 4-4, allowed three runs (two earned) in six-plus innings and eight hits. David Robertson replaced Nova with a runner on first and no outs in the seventh and after Maicer Izturis swiped second and Erick Aybar struck out looking, Robertson walked Bobby Abreu intentionally. With the count full on Torii Hunter and the runners moving, Robertson caught Hunter looking and Russell Martin threw out Izturis at third for the final out.
Because he required 54 pitches to record six outs in the first two frames, Weaver took the mound for the seventh with 107 pitches and a 3-2 lead.
Eleven pitches later the Yankees were done, and so was Weaver. Lefty Scott Downs replaced him in the eighth. In seven frames Weaver allowed two runs, three hits, walked four and fanned eight.
When Boone Logan gave up a leadoff single to switch-hitter Alberto Callaspo to start the eighth, Angels manager Mike Scioscia used right-handed hitting Bobby Wilson to bat for lefty-swinging Russell Branyan.
Girardi countered with righty Luis Ayala and after Wilson’s ground ball to the right side moved Callaspo to second, Ayala walked Mark Trumbo intentionally. With runners on first and second and one out, Ayala broke Jeff Mathis’ bat and got him to ground out to Mark Teixeira. With runners on second and third, Ayala drilled Peter Bourjos in the back to load the bases but stranded three when Maicer Izturis lofted the first pitch to left.
Nova avoided serious injury in the fifth when he got his glove on a searing Torii Hunter liner. Nova knocked the ball down and recovered to throw out Hunter at first.
Trailing, 2-0, at the start of the second, Alex Rodriguez scorched a double past third and scored on Russell Martin’s one-out single to right.
Jorge Posada, who opened the game in a 1-for-17 slide, bounced a double over the right-field fence to plate Rodriguez and tie the score, 2-2.
Only one of Nova’s first four innings was easy — when he retired three straight in the third.
Erick Aybar singled with one out in the first, went to second on a wild pitch, third on a passed ball charged to Martin and scored on Alberto Callaspo’s grounder to short.
Following the perfect third the Angels took a 3-2 lead on Bourjos’ one-out single to left. But with the bases loaded and Luis Ayala throwing in the bullpen, Nova fanned Izturis and stranded three by getting Aybar on a fly to left.