Ivan Nova, auditioning for Dan Awesome's www.ragemaker.net (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
It would seem Pitcher-They’ve-Never-Faced Syndrome isn’t a Yankee-specific malady after all.
Ivan Nova threw the finest game of his short career Monday night in Cincinnati, going a career-high eight innings, yielding one run on a season-high (and career-high tying) seven strikeouts en route to a 5-3 Yankee victory. It was also the first start of his career in which he didn’t walk a single batter.
The only slight mar on this game was that the bullpen couldn’t get out of its own way in the ninth. With a four-run lead, Luis Ayala gave up a leadoff single to Brandon Phillips. Boone Logan was summoned, and did his Boone Logan thing by not retiring lefty Joey Votto and instead hitting him, putting men on first and second with no out. With the Reds suddenly threatening, Mariano Rivera was called in to put out the fire, which he did with two groundouts and a strikeout, though both inherited runners came around to score.
Like so many 2011 contests, the Yankee offense got on the board in the first, plating four runs on a series of singles, a double and a groundout, but once again disappeared for nearly the entire game. They end up adding a gift run in the eighth due, but it was almost entirely due to sloppyness (botched catch on a caught stealing; wild pitch) on the Reds’ part. Still, all they have to do to win ballgames is score more runs than the opposition, and the team’s pitching has been good enough that the relative lack of late-inning scoring hasn’t been terribly detrimental.
If you enjoyed this article, please consider sharing it!
7 Responses to Nova spins finest game of career in 5-3 Yankee win over Reds
Leave a Reply
TIQ IQ
Great job by Nova. I was pretty worried after the first inning, but he settled nicely.
Nova is not going to pitch too many games as good as this one. BUT, I certainly hope that it shows he is learning his craft. I would love to see him develop into a number 4 (possibly a #3?) starter for the Yanks over the next several years. I certainly like his poise on the mound and with so few base runners last night he worked very quickly. What I thought was the best part about his performance last night was his faith in Russell’s pitch selection. He let Russell worry about the pitch selection and he concentrated on his execution.
Nota bene: the Yankees never faced Wood before, and they did fine against him.
Ah crap, somehow completely lost sight of that. I’ll be very interested to see what the final tally is at the end of the season as to how the 2011 Yanks fared against guys they faced for the first time.
At first glance you might be tempted to say it was a long time coming. But then you realize this was only his 21st start in the Major Leagues. Great outing by the young man.
Definitely looking forward to seeing him continue to learn his craft. So many young pitching possibilities for the Yankees right now. Exciting times. We just need to be patient.
[...] June. The 2011 series at the Great American Ballpark featured what to this day probably remains Ivan Nova’s finest career start (at 8.0 innings, it’s still his longest-ever outing), as well as a huge outing from Reds ace [...]