"He had five home runs in a five-game home stand, and would prefer it if you didn't make a fuss about it. He has 33 homers for the season - tied for the American League lead before Jose Bautista hit No. 34 Sunday - and 47 homers since he and his hitting coach, Kevin Long, went into the laboratory in Texas a year ago, and tells you it's more or less an aberration.

In a striped suit and blue tie after the Yankees' finale against the Rays was washed out Sunday, Curtis Granderson, all 185 pounds of him, kept searching for ways to explain why the ball keeps going over the wall, kept telling you he isn't a home run hitter, no matter that his total is a career high.

His material is not keeping pace with his longballs.

"The home runs have just come faster than they have in the past. There's no major difference other than that," Granderson said. The real home run hitters, he said, are the guys who hit them to left and center, in all directions, and do it year after year.

"I think he's full of (bull)," Nick Swisher said. "He's a home-run hitter right now." Swisher paused and said, "If you are a pitcher and you make a mistake on the inner part of the plate, he's going to get you."

Like any elite athlete at the pinnacle of his powers, Granderson sees no gain in dissecting or inspecting what he's doing. "He doesn't want to get caught up in the whole thing about being a home-run hitter. He thinks it's detrimental," Long said.

However Granderson chooses to view himself is immaterial. What is not immaterial is the breadth of his contributions to the most power-filled lineup in the big leagues. Granderson is first in the majors with 107 runs. He is first in the AL with 94 RBI, and second in slugging at .584. He has 22 steals and nine triples, and is hitting .275 and playing a creditable, if not spectacular, center field. The Red Sox have three stars - Adrian Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury - who are talked about as MVP candidates, and you sure can't leave Curtis Granderson out of that conversation."