The Kansas City Royals celebrated lifting the World Series banner at Kauffman Stadium by beating the New York Mets 4-3 to kick off the defence of their title.
Sunday's opening day matchup was a rematch of the 2015 championship series, won 4-1 by the Royals, and they were able to hold off a late rally from the Mets to secure victory.
Edinson Volquez cruised through six innings for Kansas, giving up only two hits before handing over to the bullpen with a 4-0 lead.
An RBI single from Eric Hosmer had given them a 1-0 lead in the first, and Kendrys Morales doubled their advantage with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth.
Alex Gordon and Omar Infante batted in further runs in the sixth as Mets starter Matt Harvey was chased from the game.
But there were plenty of nerves in the latter stages for the Royals after Joakim Soria gave up three runs in the eighth to cut their lead to one - Lucas Duda batted in two of those runs with a single.
The Royals brought in closer Wade Davis for the ninth and he gave up a walk to Travis d'Arnaud and a single to Curtis Granderson before striking out David Wright and Yoenis Cespedes to end the game.
Elsewhere, Marcus Stroman struck out five in eight innings as the Toronto Blue Jays claimed a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
And Francisco Liriano produced a fine display with six shutout innings, and 10 strikeouts, as the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the St Louis Cardinals 4-1.
