Chris Davis (19, right) celebrates with teammates after hitting a grand slam during the Orioles’ seven-run second inning. (Getty Images)
A little more than three months ago, Ivan Nova anointed himself the best pitcher in the world.
Today, he should be a candidate for a demotion for the second straight summer.
A year ago he didn’t deserve to be sent out and was. Now, based on the right-hander’s last eight games — and especially last night’s stinker — a ticket to Triple-A has definitely been earned.
Staked to a five-love lead in the first inning, Nova gave up seven runs in the second, one in the third and another in the fifth on the way to absorbing an 11-5 spanking by the Orioles in front of 42,821 cranky Yankee Stadium fans.
It was the Yankees’ fourth straight loss, which ties their season high, and ninth in 12 games. They haven’t dropped nine of 12 since June 19-July 1, 2007. Their AL East lead — 10 lengths on July 18 — has been shaved to 5 1/2.
Interestingly, Yankees manager Joe Girardi had a different take than Nova. The manager saw very little to be positive about, while the pitcher simply said it was not his night.
“He had no fastball command, an inconsistent slider and inconsistent curveball,’’ Girardi said of Nova, who gave up nine runs and 10 hits — including Chris Davis’ grand slam in the second — through five innings.
That’s not the way Nova (10-5) saw it.
“It was a bad day, that’s the game. I threw a lot of good sliders,’’ said Nova, who is 1-3 with four no-decisions in his last eight starts, a stretch in which he has given up 57 hits and 18 walks in 47 2/3 innings with an obese 5.28 ERA. “I didn’t have command of my pitches and I got hit.’’
While the blame falls on Nova’s slender shoulders, the Yankees’ bats went to sleep against Chris Tillman after the first inning.
“He started to mix his pitches,’’ Nick Swisher said of the Orioles’ right-hander, who allowed the five first-frame runs and eight hits but was the winner and improved to 4-1. “The first inning he was in the middle of the plate. After that he starting working the corners.’’
The Yankees didn’t score after the first — when Robinson Cano broke a season-high 0-for-14 slump with a two-run homer and Curtis Granderson, Ichiro Suzuki and Russell Martin drove in runs.
Across the final eight innings, the Yankees sent four batters to the plate with runners in scoring position and went hitless.
“Things haven’t been going our way for the past week,’’ said Swisher, who played first base because Mark Teixeira, the Yankees’ RBI leader, was out with a sore left hand. “We have to battle our way through it. We have to play better baseball.’’
There is no better way to play than to score five runs in the first. And there is nothing worse than watching that lead get flushed as quickly as Nova let it get away.
“They did their job,’’ Nova said of the lineup. “I have to turn the page.’’
If he tries to turn it with the same sliders he got killed with last night, he can expect that page to slap him in the face.
Girardi didn’t think Nova had much. Nova believed his slider was good and it was simply an off-night.
Whom are you going to believe? The manager, who didn’t fight the front office when Nova was sent out last year. Based on the righty’s past eight games — and especially last night — Girardi would be smart not to fight such a suggestion should it be made again.
george.king@nypost.com