Ivan Nova won his fifth game of the year tonight, pitching seven strong innings against the Oakland Athletics and allowing three runs and six hits in the Yankees 6-3 victory.

But two of those hits were home runs, long ones, too, by Josh Reddick and Kila Ka'aihue, continuing a disturbing trend by Nova of surrendering long balls. He has now given up 12 home runs in his first nine starts (56 innings), just one fewer than he allowed all last season in 165 innings.

"I think it’s because he’s been up in the zone sometimes and I think that’s an adjustment he needs to make,'' Joe Girardi said. "Solo homers you can usually live with as long as you don’t give up too many of them in one game. But it is something he needs to improve on.''

Nova's ERA dropped slightly, from 5.69 to 5.46, and his assessment of his own performance was similar to the manager's.

"Leaving the ball up and making the same mistake, throwing the wrong pitch at the wrong time and the hitters are getting really comfortable,'' he said. "It's something I've got to keep working on, and hopefully it stops right there. I know I'm going to give up a home run one day, but not too many like this year so far.''

Nova was hampered somewhat by some tightness in his right hamstring, suffered during his bullpen session on Tuesday. "I'm not going to say my hamstring was 100 percent, but I feel OK,'' he said. "My arm feels good, so the injury that I have is not so serious.''

But a couple of days ago, it was bad enough that Nova was concerned he might not be able to go tonight. "The first couple of days, it was hurting,'' he said. "Yesterday I came here and got treatment and it was much better today. I always tell them, don't take me out of the game, let me pitch.''

Nova's seven innings matched his longest outing of the year, accomplished twice previously this season.