Now the Yankees get to see whether Ivan Nova can offer any assistance to a floundering pitching staff.
Joe Girardi had better hope so. What is happening now is certainly not the stuff of a division champion.
With Michael Pineda showing the benefits of skipping a June start to save September innings — there are none — Masahiro Tanaka struggling and CC Sabathia talking about leaving his dominance in the past and morphing himself into an Andy Pettitte-type grinder, one could easily get the idea that Nova’s return from last year’s Tommy John surgery Wednesday afternoon is just what the doctor ordered.