The Royals, with a payroll among Major League Baseball's smallest at US$58 million, rallied from a three-run deficit and held off a late comeback with Tony Pena Jr's two-out, tiebreaking single in the 11th inning.
Miguel Cabrera hit a homer in his Detroit debut, helping the star-studded home team lead 3-0 through five innings, but Justin Verlander had a lackluster start to spoil the party.
Rays 6, Orioles 2
At Baltimore, a whirlwind offseason of change carried over into opening day for Tampa Bay, when the Rays reversed an annoying trend at the expense of Baltimore.
James Shields pitched seven innings of five-hit ball, Eric Hinske homered and the Rays coasted.
Indians 10, White Sox 8
At Cleveland, defending AL Central champion Cleveland won with familiar late-inning drama.
Casey Blake hit a three-run double in the eighth inning to beat Chicago. The Indians won 23 times in their final at-bat last season.
The teams combined for five homers, including a pair of two-run drives by Chicago's Jim Thome off C.C. Sabathia.
Twins 3, Angels 2
At Minneapolis, Carlos Gomez made a strong first impression for Minnesota with Torii Hunter watching from the other side.
Gomez on Monday formally replaced Hunter as the center fielder and went 2-for-3, stealing two bases and scoring two runs including the tiebreaking run in the fifth on a single by Michael Cuddyer, giving Livan Hernandez and the Twins enough offense to beat Los Angeles with a snowstorm swirling outside the Metrodome.
Mariners 5, Rangers 2
At Seattle, the largest opening-day crowd in Safeco Field history of 46,334 watched the Seattle offense wake up after Erik Bedard left his Mariners debut.
Adrian Beltre hit a go-ahead groundout in the sixth inning, Jose Lopez had a two-run double in the seventh and the Mariners beat the Texas. Bedard allowed three hits, including Michael Young's solo home run, in five innings and struck out five.
RSS