An out shy of win, but still a good start for Nova

Ivan Nova’s return to the rotation didn’t end the way he would have liked.

He was yanked by Joe Girardi one out shy of being eligible for the win in the Yankees’ 6-3 victory over the Royals on Monday night.

But considering it was Nova’s first start of the season after losing out to CC Sabathia for the No. 5 role in spring training, it was a fair- ly successful performance.

“It was a good night for me,” Nova said.

The right-hander had been shaky in six outings out of the bullpen, surrendering runs in three of them.

On Monday, he gave up a solo homer to center to Alex Gordon with one out in the second. He pitched around four singles and a walk before allowing two more base runners in the fifth.

With a runner on second and one out, Alcides Escobar grounded toward first, where Mark Teixeira made a diving stop and then threw to Nova. But the pitcher missed first base and was charged with an error.

Nova came back to strikeout Lorenzo Cain, but having already surpassed his 75-pitch limit, Girardi wasted no time in removing Nova, who seemed bothered by the move on the mound.

Afterwards, he insisted he wasn’t upset with Girardi.

“I faced the last batter and saw 81 pitches and I knew I was coming out,” Nova said.

Despite the fact he wasn’t able to finish the fifth, Girardi came away impressed with what the right-hander was able to do.

“He did a tremendous job,” Girardi said. “I hated that I had to pull him out.”

Nova hadn’t thrown more than 56 pitches in any of his outings this season — and that came in his first appearance of the season on April 6 against the Astros. He had last pitched on May 1 in Boston, throwing 20 pitches in 1 2/3 innings.

“I was hoping he would get a double play with the last batter to get the win, but it wasn’t meant to be,” Girardi said of the end of Nova’s night.

Instead, Phil Coke entered and took another step in his unlikely comeback. After falling behind 3-0 to Eric Hosmer, the lefty who pitched for the Yankees in 2008-09, got the first baseman to fly out to deep left to finish the inning.

Nova ended up allowing six hits and one run, striking out three.

It was his first start since Oct. 3, when he was knocked around for f ive runs in 5 2/3 innings in Baltimore.