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Tonight Ivan Nova surrendered eight runs on eight hits, four of them being home runs, in four innings and it was not pretty. The Yankees replaced him with Matt Daley in the fifth inning when Nova shook out his arm in the middle of an Evan Longoria at-bat in the fifth inning. Nova tried to stay in, but Girardi was having no part of it.
Unfortunately, Daley wasn't any good either, allowing another six runs (four earned) on five hits and two walks. Dellin Betances allowed an inherited runner to score when he walked a man in with the bases loaded. Even Dean Anna got in on the action as the noted position player gave up two runs on three hits on a 60 mph heater.
Originally, I thought they were only saying he was injured in order to get Nova out of the game and give someone time to warm up, but it turns out that Nova was taken out for a reason:
Ivan Nova left the game with right elbow soreness. He is scheduled to undergo tests.
— Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) April 20, 2014Nova has been pretty terrible so far this year. He came into tonight's game with a 5.94 ERA and 4.93 FIP and it only got worse from there. Similarly, the right-hander struggled in 2013 with a 5.06 ERA and 3.05 FIP over his first six starts before being placed on the disabled list with an arm injury. He returned in June a new pitcher and won Pitcher of the Month in August. If Nova has to go on the disabled list again, we can only hope that the silver lining is a better pitcher when he comes back.
Likely candidates to replace him in the rotation include any of David Phelps, Adam Warren, and Vidal Nuno, though Shane Greene could also get brought back up because of the injury. If he has to go on the 60-day DL, we could be seeing the return of Alfredo Aceves as well.
UPDATE:
Girardi said Nova wanted to continue pitching but when he said it was his elbow bothering him, Girardi said "you're done."
— Erik Boland (@eboland11) April 20, 2014