Bronx, N.Y., August 10, 2011 – The baseball headache hovering over the Bronx from Tuesday night’s loss dissipated in a hurry Wednesday. The skies over the ballpark were largely clear except for a smattering of purple clouds and a waxing moon, both looking like they had been painted by fifth graders – with evident style – and stuck up there with velcro.

The game was pretty much a Yankee laugher once Angels rookie Garrett Richards, making his mlb debut and pitching better than his numbers, issued his only walks to the first two batters he saw, and Curtis Granderson got any bad taste from the 20-hour-old loss out of his mouth with a three-run blast to right.

Ivan Nova posted a 58/36 strikes/balls ratio and found the zone 16 of 26 times with first pitches while not once coaxing a swing and a miss in six-plus frames. Giving a “sermon on the mound” from the Jim Kaat “hit bats” bible, he recorded 14 of 18 outs on ground balls and, were it not for his two-walk, two-single seventh, he’d be all the baseball buzz in the Big Apple come Thursday. But once fans get a load of the morning stats, he’ll have to share the glory with Granderson, Robinson Cano, and a Yankee offense that collected nine runs on nine hits, seven of them for extra bases.

But although there was some pretty good pitching and take-no-prisoners offense, it would be a shame to talk this game without sharing that on a perfect night for baseball, both clubs put on a clinic on defense, even if a clear-eyed assessment has to conclude that the Yanks won the “leather” war as well. True, Erick Aybar came from nowhere to rob Brett Gardner of a bloop single to short left center in the second and young center fielder Peter Bourjos incredulously speared Eddie Nunez’s extra-base bid after a long run and avoiding a diving Torii Hunter in the fourth. Mark Trumbo and Vernon Wells turned in fine plays at first and in left field in the fifth and seventh innings, respectively, and Aybar reacted well when he threw Gardner “out” on an infield single bid in the fifth, even if the only one among the 48,000 paying and nonpaying in attendance who thought his throw beat the speedy left fielder to the bag was first base ump Mike Winters.

On the other side of the “catch what they hit” ledger, the hits started with a typical Tex dive on a 3 unassisted in the second, followed by a Nunez stab on a hot shot ticketed for the corner, which he turned into a routine 5-3. Cano made a diving grab in the hole in the sixth and one of those cartilage-defying throws against the grain to nab Howie Kendrick on a ball up the middle in the eighth. Teixeira corraled another hot shot in the fourth, as did Nunez in the fifth. And Nick Swisher, celebrating his wife’s birthday (via Twitter) with two hits and two runs scored, got a great jump and ran down Jeff Mathis’s liner to right center in the third.

Had not Gardner and Derek Jeter flummoxed young Richards of the Angels to two quick walks to begin, his five-inning line would have read batter than six runs on six hits. He throws hard, mostly for strikes, and his change of pace, though not perfect, is good enough among all the high nineties heat.

Hugely significant on the Yankee side of the mound was the stunningly effective job Rafael Soriano turned in in the seventh. Relieving Nova with the sacs filled, one run in, and no outs, he quashed any chance the visitors had on a double play ball and a harmless fly to left on just four pitches.

With three hits, Cano was just a measly single short of a cycle, and Granderson both tied and surpasseed his all-time high in home runs with his 30th in the first and a singleton shot in the fifth. August 10 is not a real big day in Yankee history, though the club did throw a Billy Martin day in the Bronx and retired his No. 1 on this day in 1986. Poor Billy, who never got the respect he deserved as a field boss, had his day sullied by a 13-3 Kansas City win that day.

But coupled with a Boston loss, the Yanks are back within a game and a half of first place, and have restored their seven-game lead over the Angels for the Wild Card. Granderson has added to his MVP buzz, and Nova, well, Ivan Nova ain’t goin’ nowhere. Because on Wednesday, it was

Nova and Over

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!