Granderson atones for his mental lapse

For nearly 20 hours heading into last night's game against the Angels, Curtis Granderson took a verbal pounding from Yankees fans. Granderson, who is having an MVP-worthy season, had ended Tuesday night's loss to the Angels after closer Jordan Walden picked him off trying to steal second base.

It had been an unexpectedly clumsy play for such an elegant baserunner. So much so that it had been played again and again all day on sports highlight shows and caused YES broadcaster Michael Kay to blurt out, "That's inexcusable."

It might have been inexcusable, but Granderson made it forgettable last night after he hit his 30th and 31st home runs of the season to set a career high in the Yankees' 9-3 win over the Angels.

"He's been some kind of player," Yankees manager Joe Girardi, shaking his head in wonder after the game.

Granderson's previous high for homers in a season was 30 in 2009 with Detroit. He is one of five Yankees centerfielders to hit 30 home runs in a season, joining the ranks of Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Bobby Murcer and Bernie Williams. It also was Granderson's third multi-homer game of the season, and the 10th of his career. He went 2-for-3 with four RBIs and three runs scored.

Still, Granderson said after the game that he does not consider himself to be a home run hitter. "Right now, I have one more than my career high," he said "They've just come a little quicker."

Granderson set the tone in his first at-bat. Angels starter Garrett Richards, who was making his major-league debut, walked Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter. Then, after a conference at the mound, Richards followed a ball with a wild pitch that allowed Gardner to take third. Granderson blasted the next pitch off the top of the fence in right-center for a three-run homer, causing the 23-year-old Richards to give a what-the-heck-am-I-doing-out-here look at the ground.

Granderson's second home run was a solo shot to right in the fifth.

The performance was quite an atonement for the way Granderson ended Tuesday night's game, though he insists it is not something he was thinking about coming into the game.

"The main thing is last night as soon as I left the Stadium, it was over with," he said. "There was nothing I could have done today that was going to change yesterday. Just like there's nothing I can do tomorrow that will change today. You just have to focus on the present and do what you can do."

And Wednesday, Granderson was doing exactly what his team needed.