AMERICAN LEAGUE ROUNDUP : Yankees Beat Indians in Opener, 6-4

Dave Winfield missed the 1989 season with back problems and went one for 29 in spring training, fueling speculation the 12-time All-Star outfielder might not be able to come back at age 38.

But Thursday at New York, Winfield doubled and scored the New York Yankees’ first run in a 6-4 victory over the Cleveland Indians in a much-delayed season opener.

The teams were rained out Tuesday and snowed out Wednesday at Cleveland. They returned to Yankee Stadium for a game, rescheduled because of the lockout, and became the last two major league clubs to start the season.

“Everything I do is kind of new,” Winfield said. “It’s like I’m a rookie.”

A crowd of 50,114 saw the Yankees win their fifth consecutive opener and John McNamara lose his first game as manager of the Indians.

Pinch-hitter Luis Polonia, batting for rookie Mike Blowers, singled home the tiebreaking run off reliever Doug Jones in the eighth inning.

Eric Plunk, the Yankees’ fourth pitcher, went 1 1/3 innings for the victory.

Cory Snyder, who had a home run wiped out by the snow on Wednesday, hit a two-run homer off Dave LaPoint in the fourth.

Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly, a notorious slow starter, had two hits, including a run-scoring single. Mattingly is a .285 lifetime hitter in April, 38 points below his career average.

Detroit 11, Boston 7--Lou Whitaker hit the 150th home run of his career and Tony Phillips had four hits at Detroit to help the Tigers end an 11-game losing streak against Boston.

Whitaker’s two-run homer off rookie Mike Rochford in the first inning gave Detroit a 2-1 lead.

Phillips singled in two more runs during a four-run second inning.

Former Angel right-hander Urbano Lugo relieved Frank Tanana in the fifth and earned his first victory for Detroit.

Tony Pena hit his first home run for the Red Sox in the fourth inning.

Toronto 7, Texas 1--Fred McGriff, Pat Borders and Kelly Gruber hit home runs to lead the Blue Jays at Toronto.

McGriff’s second-inning homer off Jamie Moyer was his first in his past 108 at-bats and tied the score, 1-1. McGriff led the American League with 36 home runs last season, but his last homer was on Sept. 4 against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park.

Borders hit a solo homer and Gruber had a three-run home run during a four-run seventh.

Mike Flanagan (1-0) allowed five singles in five innings, struck out one and walked none.

Moyer (0-1) allowed four runs and nine hits in six-plus innings.