CHICAGO -- Ivan Nova did his part. Now the onus is on New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi. Nova struck out a career-high 10 and the Yankees beat the Chicago White Sox 7-2 on Thursday night, completing a four-game sweep and winning their seventh in a row overall. "That might be as good as weve seen him all year," Girardi said. "This start and Cincinnati. He was excellent tonight. His slider, again, made a huge difference for him." The Yankees moved into a tie with Boston for the AL East lead. The teams begin a three-game series at Fenway Park on Friday night. Nova (10-4) pitched 7 2-3 innings and won his sixth consecutive decision. He held Chicago to one run and six hits and didnt walk a batter. His approach was simple. "Be aggressive, try to get ahead of the hitter," Nova said. "Slider today was unbelievable. Command was there. Everything was working good." The Yankees are using a six-man starting staff on their current turn through the rotation and its been assumed that the rookie Nova would be the odd man out, especially after Phil Hughes threw six shutout innings on Tuesday. "I dont know," Girardi said. "Well continue to talk about it. Weve got a good problem. Weve got a lot of people throwing the ball well and Id like to keep it that way." Girardi already announced that Hughes would start for New York on Tuesday against the Angels. In light of Novas performance, hes not sure whats next. "I dont have an answer for that yet," Girardi said. "We dont have to rush and make a decision what were going to do. Eventually well have to." Nova has a 2.92 earned-run average over his last eight starts. Hes already been sent to triple-A once this season despite his lofty totals. He insists hell be ready no matter where his next start comes. "Again in five days," Nova said. "Have a game in five days, no matter if its here or anywhere else. "Im happy right now because I won today. Im not frustrated. Ill keep waiting and hopefully Ill stay here." Russell Martin of Chelsea, Que., hit a three-run homer in the ninth to break open the game and send Chicago to its sixth straight loss. He drove in four runs. Robinson Cano homered, singled, walked and scored a pair of runs as the Yankees won their sixth straight over Chicago, a streak during which theyve outscored the White Sox 49-14. "That was a good pitch, that guys out of this world, especially right now," said White Sox starter Phil Humber. "Hes so locked in, so balanced, the swings he took this series, pretty impressive. "That pitch right there was on the corner, maybe an inch or two above the knees and just to flick it out of the park like that is pretty impressive. Their whole lineup right now is hot, its definitely a tough one to go through." The White Sox have lost six straight games after getting to the .500 mark and drawing within three games of the lead in the AL Central last Friday. Chicago absorbed its first four-game sweep at home since dropping four in a row to Boston from Aug 23-26, 2007. The last time the White Sox were swept at home in a four-game set against New York was June 17-20, 1976. "We just run into a pretty hot ballclub and we not playing well against them," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. Paul Konerko had two singles for a quiet White Sox offence in his first start since Sunday. He missed the three previous games with bruised left leg. "Hitting-wise I felt not bad," Konerko said. "I felt maybe 80 or 90 per cent. Definitely, for the most part, could do what I wanted to do." Adam Dunn homered in the ninth, a possible good sign for the struggling slugger, though it came with his club six runs down. "Yeah, I mean they feel good, its just meaningless," Dunn said. "Personally it felt good, but it meant nothing, had no impact on the game." Humber (8-8) lost his fourth straight start. He went 6 1-3 innings, allowing five hits and four runs. Entering the game, the players currently on the Yankees were a combined 0 for 18 lifetime against Humber. He retired the first four batters on Thursday before Cano came up in the second. With one out in the inning, Cano lined the first pitch he saw from Humber into the left-field bullpen for the first run of the game. It was Canos 18th homer of the season and second in as many games after hed gone 14 games without a longball. Nova had good stuff early, retiring the first seven White Sox in order, the last three on strikeouts. The streak was broken when Alejandro De Aza beat out an infield grounder to shortstop Derek Jeter. That gave De Aza, who was 4 for 4 in Wednesdays 18-7 loss to New York, five straight hits. De Aza then stole second, went to third on Brent Morels single to right and scored on Juan Pierres sacrifice fly for a one-all tie. The Yankees regained the lead in the sixth thanks to the speed of Brett Gardner, who started the inning with a double to right and went to third on Jeters sacrifice bunt. Curtis Granderson hit a hard grounder to Dunn at first base and Gardner broke for the plate. Dunn stepped on the bag to retire Granderson and threw home, but Gardner slid home safely just ahead of the tag by catcher A.J. Pierzynski. "I thought after Robbies home run, we manufactured runs well," Girardi said. "Gardy starts with a double, Chief moves him over. Great baserunning by Gardy, the speed to score. I thought we manufactured well tonight." Humber seemed to tire in the Yankees two-run seventh. Cano led off with a single, Nick Swisher walked and Jorge Posada hit an RBI single for a 3-1 lead. That was it for Humber, who was replaced by Jesse Crain after throwing 94 pitches. Swisher scored on Martins sacrifice fly to deep centre. Next up is the Yankees biggest rival, Boston, in a park New York has struggled in this season. Girardi says its gratifying to enter the series in a dead heat. "I think it says that weve been playing well," Girardi said. "Weve been chasing them for awhile now. It just says a lot about this club and what weve been through. Weve overcome some things. It is significant." NOTES: Konerko had been out since being hit in the left knee by a pitch against Boston last Sunday. Manager Ozzie Guillen said Konerko would be limited to designated hitter duty for a few days. Bartolo Colon will start for the Yankees in the series opener against Jon Lester. New York is 454-458 all-time at Fenway. However, the Yankees are 1-8 vs. Boston this season and have lost seven straight at Fenway. Colon has lost both of his starts against the Red Sox this season, once each at Boston and New York. Mark Buehrle gets the call for the White Sox in their opener at Minnesota in a key series for two teams scrambling to stay in the AL Central race. The Twins have beaten the White Sox in seven of eight meetings this season and have won 29 of their last 36 against Chicago. Buehrle has posted a 2.03 ERA over his last eight starts but is just 2-1 over that stretch. Hes allowed three runs or less in 16 straight starts. ... White Sox speedster Juan Pierre was thrown out stealing in the sixth. Hes just 16 for 29 on the basepaths this season. wholesale jerseys .Y. -- Stevie Johnsons days of colourful -- and sometimes questionable -- touchdown celebrations appear to be over. cheap jerseys china .J. -- New Jersey Nets point guard Deron Williams is going to have wrist surgery and will miss the final week of the season. http://www.cheapjerseyschina.cc/ . In the 10th with Clayton Mortensen (2-4) on the mound, Alexei Ramirez led off with a double off the top of the wall in left. A.J. Pierzynski followed with a single and Gordon Beckham then reached base when his bunt was misplayed by Mortensen. cheap jerseys . Promoters InterBox and Groupe Yvon Michel announced Wednesday that the former world champions will meet May 25 at Montreals Bell Centre. cheap nfl jerseys .J. -- With Martin Brodeur nearing his 40th birthday and entering the final year of his contract, this season at first had the look of a last hurrah for the New Jersey Devils goalie great.(SportsNetwork.com) - A new resident in the Western Conference, the Winnipeg Jets will get a look at one of the best the circuit has to offer tonight when they resume their homestand against the St. Louis Blues. Viewers in the Jets region can watch the game live on TSN at 6:30pm ct/7:30pm et. You can also get in-game stats with TSN.cas live GameTracker. After relocating from Atlanta to Winnipeg ahead of the 2011-12 campaign, the Jets found themselves switching conferences under realignment prior to the start of this season. They are 2-3-0 against teams from their new conference this season, including a 5-3 home win over Los Angeles back on Oct. 4. Winnipeg, though, has lost four of five since and plays the fourth contest of a six-game homestand tonight looking to avoid a fourth straight setback to St. Louis. The clubs last met on Feb. 25, 2012, with the Blues picking up a 3-2 shootout win in their first trip to Winnipeg since the Jets relocated. The Jets are 1-2-0 on their longest residency of the season, following up a 3-0 win over New Jersey on Sunday with a 3-0 setback at the hands of Montreal two nights later. Ondrej Pavelec made 22 saves in the setback for Winnipeg, which has been held to a pair of goals or fewer in each of their four losses. "This one was a tough game, a game certainly we didnt have much control over," Jets head coach Claude Noel said. "Right off the start, they were in our zone, pretty much from the faceoff on. We chased the puck in our zone." Things didnt get better for Noels club on Wednesday, when forward Evander Kane suffered a lower-body injury during practice and had to be helped off the ice. Noel did say the injury is not considered severe, leaving Kane day-to- day. The 22-year-old forward is tied for the club lead with three goals and toops the Jets with 30 hits and 34 shots.dddddddddddd Winnipeg did recall 23-year-old center Patrice Cormier from the American Hockey League on Wednesday night. He has two points in 40 career NHL games after being selected in the second round of the 2008 draft by the Devils, who traded him to the then-Thrashers on Feb. 4, 2010 in a package that netted them Ilya Kovalchuk. After winning the first four games of their season-opening homestand, the Blues lost a 6-2 decision to the visiting San Jose Sharks on Tuesday, but rebounded with a 3-2 victory over hosting Chicago last night. T.J. Oshie had the only goal of the shootout and Jaroslav Halak made 27 saves through overtime before stopping all three shots he faced in the tiebreaker as the Blues bested the Blackhawks for the second time already this season. "Its huge," Oshie said of beating the Blackhawks. "I think we played a good team game. We had a couple breakdowns, but I think for the full 65 minutes and into the shootout, I think as a team we played pretty solid." Oshie assisted on a goal by Alex Steen for his 200th career point, while David Backes scored a goal in his 500th career game. Jay Bouwmeester added a pair of assists in St. Louis first road game of the season. Halak has started all six games for the Blues this season, posting a 2.26 goals against average and .919 save percentage. However, Brian Elliott is expected to get his first start of the campaign tonight. Elliott, whose only appearance this season was a relief stint versus the Sharks in which he allowed two goals on 13 shots, is 4-2-1 with a 3.31 GAA and .886 save percentage in eight career meetings with the Jets franchise. Pavelec is 1-1-1 with a 2.61 GAA and .929 save percentage in three games versus the Blues. cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '