MLB

Resembling Burnett, Nova hard to trust with Yankees season on the line

TORONTO — Ivan Nova already had ceded a postseason start the old-fashioned way — he hadn’t earned it.

Take your choice: He was outpitched by Hiroki Kuroda, CC Sabathia, Andy Pettitte and Phil Hughes. Or he simply pitched himself out of consideration one extra-base hit at a time.

But now the Yankees have to ask this: If they play the equivalent of a playoff affair next Tuesday vs. Boston, can they send Nova to the mound for regular-season game 161? So much of this time of year is about trust and how could the Yanks entrust such a big spot — possibly their playoff positioning or even their season — to someone who has become so untrustworthy.

The Yanks’ other choices will not be great.

They could turn to David Phelps. But he is a rookie, who would not have started in three weeks. Plus, the Yanks might need him out of the pen between now and then.

They could push tonight’s starter, Kuroda, on short rest, but the 37-year-old already is beyond his career high in innings and showing it in his last few efforts. That also would force the 40-year-old Pettitte to start on short rest if Game 162 mattered. Thus, a troubling domino effect would be triggered.

So, perhaps, if he deplores the other options, Joe Girardi could start Nova and essentially have the bullpen at the ready from the first pitch.

Whatever decision is made, it will merely underscore the fall of Nova from No. 2 starter going into last year’s postseason to, arguably, the No. 1 playoff obstruction this season.

BOX SCORE

“I haven’t made any changes [in that spot],” Girardi said immediately after a 6-0 loss to Toronto reduced the Yanks’ AL East lead over Baltimore to one game. The Yankee manager then said, “We’ll see” to a follow-up query about Nova’s next start before adding, “I worry about tomorrow. That is five days away.”

It was hardly a vote of support and keep in mind Girardi has said he will pretty much expend all efforts to win the division, considering the perils of falling into a one-game wild card playoff — or worse with the Rays and Angels still lurking to some degree.

This merely dramatizes how badly the Yankees need to wrap up the division before Nova’s next start rather than pick from among the unappetizing alternatives. For Nova has become this year’s A.J. Burnett — quality stuff, but without results to match. Like Burnett, Nova’s focus and control of a game are fleeting. In fact, after surrendering four runs in 4 2/3 innings, Nova’s ERA swelled to 5.02. Among pitchers who qualified for the ERA title, that would be the seventh-worst mark in Yankee history. Sixth place belongs to Burnett and his 5.15 ERA last year.

And Nova needed to be near impeccable at Rogers Centre as the Yankee offense was pitiful against Brandon Morrow, going 1-for-9 off the righty with men on base. Nova actually opened brilliantly, working two scoreless innings in 20 pitches and 16 strikes. He whiffed Moises Sierra to begin the third and was ahead of Anthony Gose 0-2 when his devilish inconsistency set in. The last batter you want to walk is a slap hitter with elite speed. But Nova threw four straight balls and then Brett Lawrie hit the next pitch — a fastball up — to right for a two-run homer.

A two-run double by Edward Encarnacion in the fourth not only made it 4-0, but was the 87th extra-base hit yielded this season by Nova, eclipsing the team record that Andy Hawkins had set in 1989. Let’s put it this way, it is much better in Yankee history to be compared to Ruth and Gehrig than Burnett and Hawkins.

Yet this is where Nova is — tangoing with infamy. It raises further crisis for future Yankees rotations.

All that matters now in the Yankees universe is the near future. And Nova can just not be part of that. He has lasted a total of just seven innings in his last two starts, giving up 11 hits and seven runs. He says he wants the ball on Tuesday and also in the playoffs. But he also said he is “baffled” by what has happened to him.

You can’t search for answers in Game 161 if it matters. That is for next February at George M. Steinbrenner Field. You would not put your season into the hands of Hawkins or Burnett if there were other options, even if the options were less than ideal. And so in 2012 the Yanks can’t entrust their season to A.J. Nova.

joel.sherman@nypost.com