AWK with allow me to add spaces

I have a file like this:
running:running since Mon Mar 3 09:46:19 2008:
running:running since Thu Mar 6 22:36:51 2008:
running:running since Tue Dec 4 00:34:15 2007:
running:running since Tue Dec 4 00:34:16 2007:
running:running since Mon Jan 21 11:15:04 2008:
running:running since Mon Jan 21 11:15:12 2008:

This is a log file, it creates everyday some log. I want to search for the specific day of yesterday.

date | awk '{ print $2 , $3-1}'

The answer will be: Mar 6

This awk has the a problem with this. If you see in my log file, "Mar" is 2 spaces from 6, not one like the awk show. How can i add one space to this file, I tried with "\t" but it does not work like i need.

Rbulus

Code:

date | awk '{ print $2" ", $3-1}'

How will the awk handle Apr 1 as it will display Apr 0 instead of Mar 31?

if you have GNU date

# d=$(date +"%b%_d" -d "1 day ago")
# grep "$d" file