That's some kind of debut

Andre Dawson and Sammy Sosa, move over.

OK, maybe that's jumping the gun a bit, but it certainly looks as if the fans in the right-field bleachers at Wrigley Field have found a new hero.

In one of the most dramatic Cubs debuts in memory, Kosuke Fukudome lined a game-tying, 3-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning Monday, his third hit to go with a walk on his first Opening Day.

Unfortunately for Fukudome and the Cubs, Milwaukee pushed across a run in the 10th for a 4-3 victory on a wet and dreary day on the North Side that was brightened considerably by the free agent from Japan.

The salaaming that once greeted Dawson and Sosa in right field has now been replaced by hands-together bows.

There was more than one Japanese flag in the huge crowd welcoming Fukudome to town, and he responded to the crowd with a curtain call following his clutch homer.

"To be able to be received very well from the somewhat harsh fans that I've heard about, it was a very good day for me," Fukudome said through his translator. "But, again, we lost the game. I wish we could have won."

After a so-so Cactus League season in his first spring training, when some suggested he was holding something back for when games counted, Fukudome looked anything but ordinary.

He lined a double over center fielder Tony Gwynn's head in the second inning on the first pitch he saw from Ben Sheets, walked in the fourth and singled sharply to right in the seventh.

Fukudome worked Brewers closer Eric Gagne to a 3-1 count in the ninth before delivering what might have been the Cubs' biggest opening-day homer since Willie Smith sent Jack Brickhouse into hysterics in 1969.

"I hope we don't start expecting that every day, but I think we now see he can play," teammate Derrek Lee said. "You don't put up the numbers he did in Japan not knowing what you're doing. He showed what a great hitter he is.

"I think today was good for him and now he can just relax. It's nice to get off to that good start and not put some pressure on yourself to dig yourself out of a hole. It would have been nice to win that one today to celebrate with him, but it didn't work out."

Fukudome hit 192 career home runs in Japan but had only 1 this spring.

"The more at-bats we got him in spring training, the better," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "He's hit so well in his country there's no reason to assume or believe that he's going to struggle here.

"What a great start for that young man. He was about our whole offense."

Fukudome claimed he took the same approach Monday that he did in Mesa, Ariz., that he was hiding nothing.

"My approach was the same as spring training," he said. "But it is the Opening Day, so maybe there was something extra mentally that was there.

"I don't think I'm that good a hitter. It's hard to explain in short sentences what kind of hitter I am."