Granderson Home Run Lifts Yankees Past Braves ATLANTA - Steady rain and distant lightning accompanied the Yankees to Turner Field on Wednesday, and Curtis Granderson provided the thunder. With the Yankees losing by a run after five innings, Granderson lofted a two-run shot to right field to help the Yankees secure a 3-2 victory that completed a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves. It was not as dramatic as the night before when Alex Rodriguez hit an eighth-inning grand slam to tie the score, but the way the Yankees have been playing in recent weeks, it was exactly the kind of hit that has propelled them into first place in the American League East. Catcher Brian McCann hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth off Hiroki Kuroda to give the Braves a 2-1 lead, but the Yankees answered immediately. Derek Jeter led off the sixth with a single and Granderson hit a towering blast through the rain and into the soaked right-field stands. It was the third time in the last four games that the Yankees came from behind with a home run to win, and the Yankees" bullpen did the rest to preserve the lead. "You have 27 outs to work with," Granderson said, "especially with this lineup and the way our bullpen can hold it together. We know we have an opportunity until the last out of the game. Lost somewhat amid all the home runs and the Yankees" terrific starting pitching has been the performance of the bullpen. Entering the game, the bullpen had a 2.75 earned run average, the second-lowest mark in the American League, and the relievers continued their stingy ways. Boone Logan, the rookie Cody Eppley and Rafael Soriano combined on three shutout innings as the Yankees won for the sixth consecutive day and maintained their one-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East. Kuroda, showing no effects of an ankle injury in his last start, pitched six innings, allowing two runs, to win his third straight decision and even his record at 6-6. But he threw 110 pitches and could not go into the seventh inning. Logan worked around two walks in the seventh, and then Eppley faced a particularly tough challenge in the eighth when the Braves had runners at first and third and only one out and the dangerous hitter Martin Prado at the plate. Prado came into the game with a .318 batting average and already had two hits. But Eppley got him to hit into a 6-4-3 double play to preserve the lead for Kuroda. Soriano, who earned his 100th save the night before, had to get through the teeth of the Braves" order. He got McCann and Dan Uggla out, but Chipper Jones singled to left with Jason Heyward to follow. But Heyward broke his bat on a weak pop-up, and second baseman Robinson Cano caught the ball to end the game. The Yankees" bullpen was always considered a strength of the team, but that was when Mariano Rivera and Dave Robertson were the anchors. Rivera is out for the season with a torn knee ligament, and Robertson has missed a month with a strained left oblique muscle. So instead of those names, other lesser-known pitchers like Eppley and Clay Rapada have had to step in, while Logan and Soriano each moved up a rung on the ladder. "We're putting these guys in situations that they probably didn't expect to be in, some of them, this year," Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. But they've gotten it done. The game started under perfect conditions, and the Yankees later noted with amusement that a message on the scoreboard in center field declared there was 0.0 percent chance of rain. "And it rained 98 percent of the game," Mark Teixeira said. Jeter led off the game with a double to center and went to third on a ground out by Granderson. He then scored on Rodriguez's single to center, which was a good sign for the Yankees. Rodriguez had collected at least one run batted in 17 of the Yankees" games, and they have won them all. It is an odd statistic, to be sure. So is the fact that Granderson, who hit his 19th home run and is on pace to hit 40 homers for the second straight year, still claims that he is not a home run hitter. "Math is just crazy like that," he said. It just happens from time to time. I get lucky and they end up going out of the ballpark. With Russell Martin doing such a good job behind the plate, Joe Girardi said he was looking for an opportunity to have him catch C. C. Sabathia again. In the last eight games Martin started before Wednesday's game, the starting pitchers were 7-0 with a 1.25 E.R.A. Chris Stewart has been catching Sabathia, whose E.R.A. is 4.29 in his last three starts. ... Robertson said he was not concerned about if he will go back to being the setup man and not the closer.