Manager Joe Girardi started Dustin Ackley against a right-hander again Sunday night and it paid off in the Yankees’ 11-2 victory over the Mets.

Ackley’s three-run homer in the top of the sixth broke the game open and gave the Yankees a 5-1 lead after a Carlos Beltran double put them up for the first time.

With two outs in the sixth, Ackley turned on 1-0 fastball from Hansel Robles and the Yankees led comfortably the rest of the game.

After spending nearly a month on the disabled list with a lumbar sprain suffered just three days after being acquired from the Mariners, Ackley’s bat has come alive.

In his last eight games, Ackley has gone 8-for-17 with two homers, a double and a triple, seemingly moving ahead of the team’s other left-handed hitting second baseman, Stephen Drew.

“I like the way he’s swung the bat,” Girardi said of Ackley before the game. “We expected he would be able to help us out at different positions. Since he had played a number of positions in Seattle, we could move him around and that he would play well in our ballpark. He’s pinch hit, played against a knuckleballer [R.A. Dickey] and played against a guy who throws 100 [mph, Saturday, Noah Syndergaard]. That’s why we went and got him.”

Ivan Nova is slated to return to the rotation Wednesday in place of Masahiro Tanaka, who is out with a Grade 1 right hamstring strain. The outing will come in Toronto against a Blue Jays team that cost Nova his spot in the rotation in the first place.

“It’s not what you want to hear,” Nova said of being yanked. “You want to pitch every five days. But I wasn’t pitching good. I wasn’t helping the team.”

He’ll get another chance Wednesday.

“I like to pitch in big games,” Nova said. “I’m not afraid to pitch in big games.”

This one figures to be very significant, with the series in Toronto likely the last chance the Yankees have of catching the front-running Blue Jays in the AL East.

Nova was knocked out after just 1 ²/₃ innings in the second game of a doubleheader on Sept. 12 against Toronto and hasn’t pitched since.

“I’m ready to go forget what happened,” Nova said. “You’ve got to have the right mindset. I have to command my pitches.”

Alex Rodriguez didn’t start any of the three games against the Mets, but that will change in Toronto, when the DH is back in play.

“We definitely miss that bat in the lineup,” Girardi said. “It will be nice to pencil his name in every day as we move forward.”

Rodriguez drew a pinch-hit walk in the eighth and was replaced by Rico Noel at first base. … Adam Warren and Luis Severino were sent to Toronto early to prepare for their starts on Monday and Tuesday respectively.