Davidson, White Sox make history, tee off on Royals

Have yourself an Opening Day, Matt Davidson.

You too, Tim Anderson, Jose Abreu, Yolmer Sanchez, Avisail Garcia and Adam Engel.

And James Shields, squeeze in there as well.

"It's a good start," Davidson told reporters after tying a major-league record with 3 home runs in the Chicago White Sox's 14-7 win over the Kansas City Royals Thursday at Kauffman Stadium. "Let's keep it up for the next 161 and make the playoffs."

If the Sox repeat their performance in the season opener, they're not going to lose a game all year.

That's not realistic, considering they tied a major-league record with 6 Opening Day home runs. The New York Mets also cleared the fences a half dozen times in their 1988 season opener against the Montreal Expos.

But for one game, the White Sox have every right to dream big.

"We're really good," Davidson said. "It's just going to come down the consistency of our play. If we do this more times than not, obviously we'll produce wins. But just like any player in this game or any team, the better ones are more consistent.

"If we can keep this going and pitchers keep us in and we keep putting the bat on the ball and have good at-bats, if we can consistently do that, that's something that will translate to a lot of wins."

It looked like the Sox were headed for a lopsided loss after the Royals jumped on starting pitcher James Shields for 4 runs in the first inning.

"He was upset a little bit after that first inning," White Sox manager Rick Renteria said of Shields. "He decided to attack the zone in a controlled way. It says a lot about his experience, and his heart."

Shields settled down and didn't allow any more runs while going 6 innings.

In the fourth inning, Davidson and the Sox's offense went on the attack.

Abreu, Davidson and Anderson homered against Royals starter Danny Duffy in the fourth and Davidson and Anderson went deep again in the fifth.

In the eighth inning, Davidson joined the Blue Jays' George Bell, the Cubs' Tuffy Rhodes and the Tigers' Dmitri Young as the only players in major-league history to hit 3 home runs on Opening Day.

"Not really," Davidson said when asked if he was thinking about the home run hat trick. "If I start thinking like that it'll throw everything off. Three home runs is awesome, but I think the main goal this season was the walk I had (in the seventh inning). If I can keep those walks up, you're going to hit balls in the zone harder than balls out of the zone."

Just about everybody hit for the White Sox in the opener.

Davidson was 3-for-4 with 5 RBI, Anderson was 2-for-3 with 3 RBI, Abreu was 2-for-5 with 2 RBI, Sanchez had a 3-run single and Garcia and Engle had 2 hits each.

"Today was a good day," Anderson said. "We kept chipping away and it's great to be a part of it. Put that one away and keep going."