DETROIT — Ivan Nova did not want Francisco Cervelli out there. Mound visits usually mean things are going wrong, and now teams only get six. But Nova worked into trouble three times in his five innings of work.
“To be honest,” Nova said, “you don’t want to know what he told me.”
Whatever Cervelli and pitching coach Ray Searage said, worked. Two of the mound visits defused bases-loaded, nobody-out jams without a run scoring and a third produced three consecutive outs after three consecutive doubles. Nova overcame shaky control to pitch five innings and allow two runs in his opening-day start against the Detroit Tigers.