CHICAGO — Returning home to play in front of family and friends is not new for Curtis Granderson, who went to high school in the area and college at Illinois-Chicago.
However, Granderson has experienced better days than yesterday, when the Yankees dropped a 3-1 decision to the soft-tossing Doug Davis and the Cubs at Wrigley Field.
Granderson, a serious AL MVP candidate, went 0-for-4, struck out three times and was hitless in three at-bats with runners in scoring position.
And he sort of misplayed Starlin Castro’s single into an RBI double in the first inning, when the Cubs took a 2-0 lead.
“It carried farther than I thought it would,” Granderson said.
As the ball headed toward the left-center gap, Granderson broke in on it, then couldn’t recover when it hit the grass.
“Once I got to it, I was a bit in between,” he said. “The outfield is fast and it got past me.”
The ball rolled to the wall and Kosuke Fukudome scored from first for the game’s initial run.
Granderson opened the day with 21 home runs, tied for the major league lead with Toronto’s Jose Bautista and Yankees teammate Mark Teixeira, and 52 RBIs, third in the AL.
But against Davis, Granderson fanned in the first inning, grounded out on a check-swing to strand Brett Gardner at second in the third and fanned to leave two runners on in the fifth.
“He had good rhythm and control and worked at his own pace,” Granderson said of Davis. “He never sped up and never slowed down. Nothing was the same or consistent.”
Granderson also struck out against reliever Sean Marshall for the second out in the eighth inning with Nick Swisher on second. Swisher did score on Mark Teixeira’s single.
Manager Joe Girardi said Granderson didn’t let his team down.
“You can’t expect one guy to do it every day,” said Girardi, whose club went 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.