Even before Nova (3-2) threw his first pitch, Granderson put the Yankees ahead to stay.
His 433-foot (132 meter) drive into the second level of seats high above the Rangers' bullpen in right-center made it 2-0 in the first. He hit his AL-leading 10th homer in the seventh, a towering solo shot closer to the right-field line but still in the upper deck.
Nova struck out one, walked one and gave up an unearned run.
At Kansas City, Gio Gonzalez pitched seven effective innings as the Oakland Athletics ruined Eric Hosmer's much-anticipated major league debut.
Gonzalez (4-2) settled down after allowing Alex Gordon's homer in the first, holding Kansas City to two runs and four hits.
Hosmer made his first start at first base for Kansas City after hitting .439 at Triple-A Omaha, the highest average of any minor league regular. He went 0 for 2 with two walks.
Sean O'Sullivan (1-2) was almost as good as Gonzalez, but Oakland got to him for three runs in the fifth. The right-hander still managed a career-high eight innings, allowing five hits and one walk.
At Baltimore, James Shields gave up just three hits into the eighth inning and Brandon Guyer homered in his first big league at-bat.
Johnny Damon also connected for the Rays, who are 17-6 since a 1-8 start that included three straight losses to Baltimore to open the season.
Shields (3-1) gave up one run, struck out five and walked three while improving to 3-0 with a 1.12 ERA in his last five starts. The most glaring flaw in his performance was a homer by Derrek Lee in the sixth.
In his previous three games against the Orioles, Shields was 0-3 with a 6.48 ERA.
Guyer became the only player in Rays history to homer during his first plate appearance in his major league debut. Recalled from Triple-A Durham earlier in the day, Guyer drove a 3-1 pitch from rookie Zach Britton (5-2) into the left-field seats with a runner on to make it 3-0 in the second inning.
At Boston, Trevor Plouffe hit his first homer of the season and Scott Baker pitched eight strong innings.
Minnesota scored twice on balks and took advantage of a pair of errors by the Red Sox, who have allowed 21 runs in their last two games. Baker (2-2) allowed seven hits, struck out eight and walked one for the Twins, who have won three straight for just the second time this season.
J.D. Drew homered in the second and Adrian Gonzalez went deep in the fourth, but that was all the offense for Boston, which has lost three straight.
Red Sox manager Terry Francona was ejected in the second inning after Tim Wakefield (0-1) was called for a balk.
Wakefield allowed eight runs, six earned, and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings.
At Toronto, Adam Lind homered and drove in two runs and Jesse Litsch struck out a career-high nine.
Lind had an RBI single off Phil Coke (1-5) during a three-run first and added a solo drive to center in the eighth, his seventh of the season. Toronto's first baseman extended his hitting streak to 11 games and is batting .477 (21 for 44) over that span.
Lind, who came in tied with three other players for the AL RBI lead, went 2 for 5 as the Blue Jays collected a season-high 15 hits. Lind has 27 RBIs.
Litsch (3-2) won for the second time in three starts since being recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas on April 25. The right-hander allowed one run and four hits in 6 1-3 innings and walked three.
