Today is April 7 and 34 years ago, Catfish Hunter pitched seven shutout innings and held the Milwaukee Brewers to seven hits to kick off the 1977 season.

That happened to be four days after A.J. Burnett turned three months old and today Burnett makes his second start in what he hopes will be a significant bounce-back campaign from a year ago. Burnett began the season Saturday against Detroit with five servicable innings in a 10-6 win.

The Yankees would love to get the type of performance from Burnett that Billy Martin received from Hunter 34 years ago, though they'll take seven innings with something like five hits and two runs, especially since Burnett does not have the head cold he had last week.

"It makes you feel better about his stamina and being able to give you a substantial amount of pitches and not worrying if he can catch his breath or has to cover first base, how fatigued he is," manager Joe Girardi said. “I do feel a lot better about that and we’d love to get seven innings out of him."

Of course everyone needs to see more than two decent performances from Burnett to see is he back to pitching somewhat like the 2009 or 2008 version, which won 31 games.

Burnett also has a good track record in April, which as athletes tend to say, it's just one of those things. Since becoming a Yankee, he is 6-0 with a 3.99 ERA. It's those other five months that tend to be problematic.

Should Burnett hit a bump or two in the road, Freddy Garcia might make a relief appearance and if that occurs, it would mark his first since August 18, 2000 when he relieved Paul Abbott in a 9-8 Mariner loss in Cleveland. Of course, Bartolo Colon could make an appearance and in those funny coincidences, Colon happened to be the opposing starter pitcher for the Indians on the same day of Garcia's lone relief appearance.

If the opposite happens, Rafael Soriano likely will be available. He might not have pitched had last night's game been played due to throwing 51 pitches in his previous two outings.

Speaking of relief pitching, Pedro Feliciano's next throwing session was pushed back to early next week. Originally, he was supposed to have a catch with pitching coach Larry Rothchild this week but they don't want to rush things.

Elsewhere, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez return to the left side of the infield while Russell Martin catches and since there is a lefty going for Minnesota, Andruw Jones gets his second start. Jones homered in his first start Tuesday but that was overshadowed by Soriano.

The Twins were also planning on using Wednesday as a day off for Joe Mauer despite some good numbers off Garcia. Mauer return to the lineup and face Burnett, whom he is 7-for-17 against and here's an interesting take on when to give Mauer games off.

So there you have it and after today, it's off to Boston, which is experiencing an unexpected start by the team picked by virtually everyone as World Series locks. Chances are if the Yankees are paying attention, they will know it the Red Sox finally have that highly-anticipated victory.

The players might not be paying attention but you know the fans will, though they might be more concerned with Phil Hughes' lack of velocity and location if those issues persist Friday afternoon.