SOUTHERN CHARM: Curtis Granderson watches his two-run, sixth-inning home run leave the yard last night in Atlanta, providing the go-ahead runs in the Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Braves to complete a three-game sweep and improve to 7-2 in interleague play. (Reuters)
SOUTHERN CHARM: Curtis Granderson watches his two-run, sixth-inning home run leave the yard last night in Atlanta, providing the go-ahead runs in the Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Braves to complete a three-game sweep and improve to 7-2 in interleague play. (Reuters)
ATLANTA — You can speculate forever as to why Hiroki Kuroda took almost two months to evolve into the pitcher the Yankees believed they signed as a free agent.
Manager Joe Girardi says there was an adjustment period to New York.
Scouts explained the early problems were the result of hitters punishing pitches up in the zone.
After getting spanked by the Blue Jays in Toronto, Kuroda admitted he needed to change the way he was pitching and felt an urgency to stop throwing high strikes he got away with pitching against the soft lineups in the NL West the past four years.
And then there is Russell Martin’s take, which is probably the most accurate.
“His slider and splitty are back,’’ said Martin, who caught Kuroda with the Dodgers. “The splitty, he can throw to righties and lefties and that’s been the key for him.’’
Kuroda wasn’t sharp last night in a 3-2 win over the Braves in front of 48,938 at a wet Turner Field. Yet, when he needed to deliver, he blocked out a steady rain and did.
The Yankees’ season-high sixth straight victory and the 11th win in a dozen games kept them one game ahead of the Orioles in the AL East and pushed the best record in the league to 37-25.
The Bombers are 7-2 against the NL this year, and their overall mark of 164-109 is the best since interleague play was introduced in 1997.
In Kuroda’s six innings, he allowed two runs and nine hits. With runners in scoring position the Braves were 1-for-9 against Kuroda, who was forced out of his previous start Friday against the Mets when he took a liner off the left foot.
“The most important factor was to stay focused,’’ Kuroda said of the ability to strand nine runners in six frames.
Kuroda won for the third straight time and is 6-6.
“This is what we saw in spring training and last year, what our scouts saw,’’ Girardi said of the right-hander. “We are starting to see a consistent fastball and slider and a better curveball.’’
Curtis Granderson’s two-run homer off Tim Hudson in the sixth erased a 2-1 deficit. Kuroda fanned Martin Prado for the final out of the sixth with a runner on and the bullpen provided three scoreless innings. Rafael Soriano recorded the final three outs for his 11th save in 12 chances.
Boone Logan, who replaced Kuroda, issued two one-out walks in the seventh but didn’t allow a run. Cody Eppley gave up two singles in the eighth and ended the threat by feeding Prado a 6-4-3 double play. Soriano went through the heart of the Braves order for the save.
The consistent fastball Girardi spoke of surfaced from Kuroda in the fourth. With runners on second and third and two outs, Kuroda poured a 0-2 heater clocked at 94 mph by a swinging Michael Bourn.
Between Japan and America, Kuroda has 150 wins, and he called it a “great milestone’’ that was achieved in less than ideal conditions.
“With that rain it was getting softer and softer,’’ Kuroda said of the mound that was worked on between innings. “I tried not to let it affect me and concentrated on the hitters.’’
Nine hits in six innings to go with two walks is a lot of runners. But when Kuroda needed to be right he was.
“This is the Hiroki we saw,’’ said Girardi, who didn’t wait until the exhibition season started to name Kuroda the No. 2 starter behind CC Sabathia.
At the time the move was puzzling. Now, it seems like it was the right thing to do.
george.king@nypost.com