Left to Granderson, he comes through

Three times this weekend, Indians manager Manny Acta had a lefthanded reliever face Curtis Granderson.

Three times, the Yankees centerfielder banged out hits, including a single Monday in the Yankees' six-run seventh inning in their 11-2 win.

Can he hit lefties? For the moment, it appears the player John Sterling calls "The Grandy Man'' can.

"The whole series basically relied on three at-bats that we couldn't make pitches on Granderson,'' Acta said. "It's easy to look at the home runs, but those home runs were set up by the at-bats that he had. He came into this series hitting .199 the last three years against lefthanded pitchers, and he went 3-for-3 against our guys.''

The home runs Acta referred to were Robinson Cano's seventh-inning grand slam Friday night, Mark Teixeira's go-ahead three-run blast Sunday and Alex Rodriguez's grand slam Monday that turned a 2-1 game into a 6-1 game.

Granderson was on base for all three. On Friday, he doubled to center against lefthander Tony Sipp. On Sunday, he doubled to right against Sipp. Monday, it was a single to right against Rafael Perez.

All this from a guy who hit .183 against lefties in 2009. It was the major blemish on his resume when the Yankees acquired him from the Tigers. It's something he has worked on since spring training with hitting coach Kevin Long, though Granderson says there are no specific drills he uses to improve against lefties.

"There's nothing you really can do,'' said Granderson, who is 8-for-34 (.235) against lefthanders as a Yankee with two doubles, one triple, three RBIs, one walk and 11 strikeouts.

"Everyone talks about, 'How are you going to do it?' I can't put the tee up there and say, 'OK, this is a lefthander throwing to me.' I can't find guys to throw lefthanded BP [in spring training] because those guys are working to get themselves ready for the season. Once you come into spring training, you just try to go ahead and find out, 'OK, what are the couple of things that I was doing wrong?' The main thing that Kevin Long talked about is, 'Your approach against righthanders is great, but it's not the same approach against lefthanders.' It's trying to go ahead and mirror those two things.''

Granderson, who is 4-for-12 since returning from the disabled list Friday, is batting .239 overall. He will get his next chance to face a lefthander when the Orioles' Brian Matusz starts against the Yankees tonight.