Yankees Recap: Super Nova Holds Off White Sox

The Yankees continued their long, slow climb back to respectability Saturday afternoon, squeaking by the White Sox 2-1. The win was their sixth of this nine game homestand, and gives them the opportunity to win their third consecutive series with ace Masahiro Tanaka on the mound Sunday at 1:05 pm EST.

New York mounted their first and only successful rally in the second. Chase Headley walked with two outs and then managed to score from second on Aaron Hicks’s opposite field double off the wall in right. Didi Gregorius followed that up with an RBI single. Those two runs would prove to be all the team needed thanks to a phenomenal outing by their pitching staff.

The real hero of the game was Ivan Nova, who is making the most of each start since replacing the injured CC Sabathia in the rotation. With Luis Severino joining CC on the 15-day DL before today’s game, Nova will have an extended opportunity to prove he should be starting. Nova allowed only one earned run for the second consecutive start, cruising through 5.2 innings while keeping almost everything on the ground. 13 of the 17 outs he recorded were on grounders. One exception was a solo shot he allowed to hometown hero Todd Frazier on a fastball up in the zone, but it was his only costly mistake of the game, and his start was a major success overall.

Manager Joe Girardi pulled out all the stops to protect his slim 2-1 lead, pulling Nova in the sixth with two outs after allowing a walk to Frazier. Dellin Betances, Andrew Miller, and Aroldis Chapman combined to finish the remaining 3.1 innings, striking out eight batters while allowing just one solitary baserunner. This is exactly the sort of game this team was designed to win. Even with a one run lead, this one felt more or less over in the seventh.

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Notes:

• Jacoby Ellsbury came in during the eighth inning as a defensive replacement for Carlos Beltran. It was his first game action since injuring his right hip eight days ago against the Red Sox. Hopefully he’ll be ready for a start tomorrow.
• Relievers Conor Mullee and Chad Green were both called up from Triple-A Scranton prior to the game. Gary Sanchez was somewhat puzzlingly demoted after only one start, leaving Austin Romine as the Yankees’ DH for this afternoon’s contest.
• Anthony Rieber of Newsday reported that James Kaprielian is still shut down with inflammation in his right elbow. He’s been on the disabled list since April 25th and hasn’t begun throwing as of yet.