ARLINGTON, Texas – Sammy Sosa was laughing when he got to first base after giving the Texas Rangers their first lead of the season.

“Sometimes you don’t have swing hard to get a hit,” Sosa said.

Or even swing at all like Sosa in the 38-year-old slugger’s first home game for Texas since his rookie season in 1989.

Sosa was actually trying to check his swing and was pulling his bat back when he made contact in his first at-bat. The ball blooped into short right for an RBI single and the Rangers went on to a 2-0 victory over Boston in their home opener Friday.

“It was perfect,” Sosa said smiling, admitting that he initially didn’t realize that he had even hit the ball.

“We finally caught a break right there,” rookie manager Ron Washington said.

After being swept in a season-opening three-game series at the Los Angeles Angels, when they never even led, the Rangers finally gave Washington his first victory even though they had only three singles.

Robinson Tejeda (1-0) allowed two hits, one of them an infield single, over seven shutout innings. After trying to field a ball barehanded in the sixth and then walking a batter, the No. 4 starter got out of that inning when Red Sox sluggers David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez had consecutive flyouts.

Akinori Otsuka, still in the closer role with Eric Gagne starting the season on the disabled list, gave up a leadoff single to Ramirez in the ninth before getting the last three outs.

The Rangers scored runs in the first two innings off knuckleballer Tim Wakefield (0-1), who gave up three hits over six innings. Texas had given up runs in the first inning each game against Los Angeles.

“It’s one of those days where the guy on the other side pitched really good. After the first two innings, I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I felt like I settled down after that,” Wakefield said. “I pitched well, we just didn’t win.”

Instead, it was a feel-good day for the Rangers and Sosa, who after a year out off baseball agreed to a minor league deal and then made the team by hitting .408 with five home runs in 17 spring games.

Sosa, fifth on the career list with 588 homers, is hitting only .200 (2-for-10) with four strikeouts when it counts. But he finally got his first RBI.

“The first couple of games every year, it’s still the same thing, people want get two hits in one at-bat and want to be the hero every day,” Sosa said. “It’s only a couple of games. Come see me in six months when everything is there. You have to believe in yourself, no panic.”

Sosa was having a good time even before the game, cutting up with Ortiz and Ramirez when they were lined up for pregame introductions. Sosa was greeted with mostly cheers when he was introduced as the No. 5 hitter playing right field.

Sosa was 1-for-3 with a strikeout and a routine flyout to center before being replaced in the field by Nelson Cruz in the eighth inning. While Washington has said he expects to use Sosa primarily as a designated hitter, Sosa caught six flyball outs Friday.

Michael Young and Mark Teixeira were on base in the first when Sosa got his check-swing hit.

Texas went ahead 2-0 in the second after Brad Wilkerson led off by reaching on an error by second baseman Dustin Pedroia. Wilkerson stole second base and scored on Gerald Laird’s single to left, sliding in ahead of Ramirez’s two-hop throw to the plate.

That’s all the Rangers needed to avoid an 0-4 start.

“It’s definitely nice to get the first one out of the way. It doesn’t matter how you win as long as you get one on the board,” Young said. “We come home and everybody was making such a big deal out of three games. It was almost like they were ready to talk about the Cowboys again.”

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones did sit in the field-level box with Rangers owner Tom Hicks. The first pitch was thrown by Hall of Fame receiver Michael Irvin, whose career with the Cowboys ended in 1999 – the same year the Rangers went to the playoffs.

Boston never got a runner to third base.

Coco Crisp had a one-out double in the fifth, but was stranded there. Julio Lugo drew a one-out walk in the eighth against reliever Joaquin Benoit and went to second on a groundball before Ortiz grounded out to end the inning.

“They were calling the high strikes today and we were popping them up,” Pedroia said. “We hit some balls well, but not enough to get going.”

Devil Rays 6, Blue Jays 5

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – After struggling in spring training, Akinori Iwamura is showing why he was Tampa Bay’s top offseason acquisition.

The five-time Japanese League All-Star hit his first major league homer and sprinted home from third base with two outs in the ninth inning to help the Devil Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-5 Friday night in Tampa Bay’s home opener.

Delmon Young erased a 5-3 deficit with a two-run homer off B.J. Ryan (0-1) in the ninth, then Iwamura laid down a bunt single to finish 4-for-4 and set the stage for an exciting finish. Iwamura raced to third on Elijah Dukes’ two-out single and Upton followed with a high chopper to drive in the winning run.

Indians, Mariners called

CLEVELAND – One strike away from being an official game, the Cleveland Indians’ home opener against the Seattle Mariners was postponed Friday night when daylong snow wouldn’t stop.

The Indians were leading 4-0 with two outs in the top of the fifth, when the umpires halted play for the third time. The first pitch had been delayed for nearly an hour because of the winterlike weather.

Crew chief Rick Reed called the game at 8:41 p.m. – 4 hours and 36 minutes after the scheduled first pitch – ending a strange day and night when the groundscrew spent more time on the field than any of the players. In addition to a 57-minute delay at the start, the game was interrupted for 22 minutes, 17 minutes and finally for 1:17.

Twins, White Sox ppd.

CHICAGO -The relievers got a chance to rest, and the Chicago White Sox got another day to brace for the “piranhas” when Friday’s game against the Minnesota Twins was postponed because of cold weather and strong winds.

Temperatures were already in the low- to mid-30s by Friday afternoon and were expected to drop into the 20s by night.

A makeup date has not been scheduled.

Orioles 6, Yankees 4

NEW YORK – Mike Mussina was roughed up in his season debut and Baltimore’s revamped bullpen succeeded in its first chance to protect a late lead, helping the Orioles beat the New York Yankees 6-4 Friday night for their first victory of the year.

Adam Loewen again held New York’s powerful lineup in check, Melvin Mora played an outstanding all-around game and Baltimore avoided opening 0-4 for the first time since the 1988 team lost its first 21 games – a major league record to start a season.

Robinson Cano drove in two runs for New York, but Alex Rodriguez failed to come through in another big situation and the Yankees dropped their second straight since an opening-day victory over Tampa Bay.

Royals 3, Tigers 1

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Tony Pena Jr.’s third triple in four games keyed a two-run seventh inning and the Kansas City Royals beat the Detroit Tigers 3-1 Friday night.

On a day when wintry weather plagued baseball throughout the Midwest, it was 35 degrees at gametime and by the sixth inning, temperatures had dipped to 31 and gusty winds drove the wind chill down to 23.

Justin Verlander,