Yankees reliever Boone Logan grimaces after giving up two runs against James Loney in the seventh inning, runs that would win the game for the Rays. (Getty Images)
Ivan Nova showed he might be ready to rejoin the Yankees’ starting rotation.
Too bad he can’t hit.
Nova was a bright spot in a game the Yankees lost to the Rays, 3-1, thanks to a rough seventh inning on the mound and another punchless performance by their offense at The Stadium on Old-Timers’ Day.
The right-hander, making his first start in the majors since April 26, pitched well until there were two outs in the seventh. That’s when he hit back-to-back batters, leading to the winning runs.
“I got too excited,” said Nova, who fell to 2-2. “That was the first time this year I was pitching into the seventh inning.”
First, he hit Desmond Jennings with a fastball and followed that up by getting Ben Zobrist on the foot when he tried to strike him out with a curveball.
Shawn Kelley came in and promptly walked Evan Longoria, forcing Boone Logan to face lefty-hitting James Loney with the bases loaded.
Logan left a 1-2 slider up in the zone and the first baseman drilled a two-run single to center that eluded the lunging Jayson Nix at short.
“I thought I was really close to it,” Nix said. “But I couldn’t quite get there.”
And the Yankees’ bats, which showed signs of life the previous two games, mustered just one hit the rest of the way.
“It’s tough,” said manager Joe Girardi, whose team was looking to win its third straight over Tampa Bay. “We didn’t score a lot of runs, which made it more difficult … We had our opportunities to get out of the inning, we just didn’t do it.”
They didn’t seem to have much of an opportunity to score more than just the first-inning run that tied the game at 1-1.
Tampa Bay starter Chris Archer (2-3) had lasted more than five innings only once in four previous starts this season, but allowed just the one run over six innings.
The Yankees were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position, but Zoilo Almonte was the last Yankee to reach second base with his sixth-inning double.
“It’s not frustrating,” Chris Stewart said of the lack of runs. “We’re playing good games; we’re just not winning games. You want to put good at-bats together and we’re doing that, we’re just not getting the big hit. Sometimes it happens.”
Especially when Stewart, Nix and David Adams make up the bottom third of the batting order on a regular basis.
The loss left the Yankees still just one game back in the loss column in the AL East, with fourth-place Toronto closing fast.
“We had some momentum on the West Coast trip and then we went into Oakland and lost some tough games,” Girardi said. “It seemed like we were getting some momentum again and we lose another tough one today.”
After today’s off day, they will play 20 straight days leading into the All-Star break.
What happens to the rotation remains to be seen.
Girardi wouldn’t guarantee another Nova start, but did acknowledge it would be difficult to bump him off yesterday’s 6 ²/₃-inning, three-run performance — an outing that could have been significantly better if Nova, Kelley or Logan had been able to close out the seventh.
“I have no idea what we do,” Girardi said of Nova’s future after the right-hander’s fourth straight strong showing.
Nova pitched well in relief in his final appearance out of the bullpen before being sent down and then was solid in three minor league starts.
But if the Yankees don’t find more consistency at the plate, it might not matter who’s on the mound.
dan.martin@nypost.com