WHY THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

I'll say it now, I've bought into Ivan Nova. It may have been his 13th career major league start, but Ivan Nova most certainly pitched his best game tonight, and in probably his biggest game of his career, in Arlington against the Rangers in the Yankees 4-1 win.

Nova pitched another stellar game, his third straight, as he went a career high 7.1 innings, allowed one unearned run, just two hits, a walk, and 1 strikeout. Another impressive stat for Nova was the fact that he had 16 ground ball outs, compared to five fly ball outs, and he lowered his ERA to 4.08.

Nova was the story on the mound, but the story at the plate was Curtis Granderson for sure. The Grandy Man went 2 for 4 on the evening with two long, long balls. The first dinger for Granderson came in the first inning against Matt Harrison--who went six innings, allowing three runs. Grandy's homer reached the upper deck in right center field to give the Yankees a quick 2-0 lead.(photo: AP)
The second came in the seventh inning against reliever Ryan Tucker. It was a solo blast which went deep into the right field seats. The Yankees also scored a run in the third inning.

The Rangers scored their only run in the 8th inning. Rafael Soriano relieved Nova after 7.1 innings and allowed the unearned run to score on a Julio Borbon single after overpowering first baseman Chris Davis on three fastballs. Mariano Rivera pitched a clean 1-2-3 9th inning to earn his major league leading 12th save on the season.

The Yanks improve to 18-12 as Bartolo Colon gets the nod against Derek Holland on Saturday.

Final Score tonight: Yankees 4 - Rangers 1. The Yankees are back. Don't ever lose faith.



--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer




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