Bombers bits

• The Yankees used 141 batting orders during the 2013 season, and their most-used lineup was together just four times. That fact was not lost on Girardi, who was able to send his Opening Day lineup out a second time on Wednesday against the Astros.

"It's nice," Girardi said. "Obviously, the key is to stay healthy. If we're able to do that, you can see this lineup a lot."

• Girardi will probably handle Hiroki Kuroda's season a lot like he approached Andy Pettitte's final big league campaign, studying pitch counts closely and scanning for signs of fatigue.

"Maybe you start thinking, you get up around the 100-pitch mark, that might be it for him," he said. "You've got to see how taxing the innings are, if he's got an extra day's rest coming, all those sort of things. We're going to have to watch him."

• On this date in 1996, Derek Jeter batted ninth and hit a solo home run off Dennis Martinez in the fifth inning of the Yankees' 7-1 Opening Day victory over the Indians in Cleveland. Jeter became the first Yankees rookie to start at shortstop in a season opener since Tom Tresh in 1962.