KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The first winning home run on opening day in Royals history forever will be etched in the mind of the man who hit it.
"This I'm going to remember for the rest of my life," Carlos Beltran said. "I'm going to live with this. Opening day. A walkoff home run. It doesn't get any better than this."
Trailing since the White Sox scored four in the second, the Royals tied it at 7 on Mendy Lopez's three-run pinch homer off Damaso Marte in the ninth.
Then after Angel Berroa singled, Beltran hit Marte's 2-and-2 pitch over the wall in left-center, giving the Royals a 9-7 victory in front of 41,575, Kansas City's largest opening-day crowd since becoming a major-league town with the arrival of the Athletics in 1955.
"I will never forget that feeling as I ran around the bases," Beltran said.
The White Sox took a 7-3 lead into the ninth, but Cliff Politte walked the first two batters and Billy Koch gave up a run-scoring double to Benito Santiago, who had three RBIs in his Royals debut.
With one out, Marte came in and Lopez, who had five major-league home runs in 384 at-bats, made it six in 385.
"I never hit a ball that far in my life," Lopez said. "Opening day. It's the biggest thing I ever did in my life in baseball."
Marte seemed to take the loss philosophically.
"I felt good," he said. "I just missed my spots. It happens. It's never happened to me before on opening day so it's a surprise. But I have to take it."
Manager Tony Pena first started to send Matt Stairs up to pinch hit for Lopez. Pena changed his mind when he remembered Lopez had faced Marte in winter ball.
"I just called him in and said hit a home run," said a grinning Pena. "And he did it."
TIGERS 7, BLUE JAYS 0: Ivan Rodriguez, Rondell White and Jason Johnson made sure Detroit had a different start in 2004.
Rodriguez and White homered in their first game for the visiting Tigers, backing former Rays pitcher Johnson.
Roy Halladay, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, was knocked around for seven runs, six earned, and 10 hits in 62/3 innings. Halladay, who struck out nine, dropped to 9-2 against the Tigers.
Last season, Detroit began 0-9 and set a league record with 119 losses. The Tigers, who hadn't won an opener since 2000, spent the offseason trying to rebuild a franchise that hasn't finished with a winning record since 1993.
TWINS 7, INDIANS 4 (11): Shannon Stewart hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 11th, giving host Minnesota a comeback victory.
Travis Hafner hit two of Cleveland's three home runs, and Indians starter C.C. Sabathia pitched seven shutout innings with nothing to show for it.
Jose Jimenez started the eighth with a 4-0 lead, got one out and was replaced by Scott Stewart with runners on second and third. Pinch-hitter Michael Cuddyer's single to center drove them in, cutting the deficit to 4-2.
After Corey Koskie's double drove in Cuddyer, Rafael Betancourt entered and gave up a tying single to Torii Hunter.
