DETROIT -- Spencer Torkelson saw AJ Pollock catch the ninth-inning drive from Javier B¨¢ez at the right-field wall and thought they were heading to extra innings. He did not envision the off-the-wall walk-off.

¡°I thought he made a hell of play,¡± Torkelson said after the Tigers¡¯ 5-4 Opening Day win over the White Sox. ¡°And we¡¯re like, ¡®All right, let¡¯s go to the 10th.¡¯ And then we saw the replay.¡±

Austin Meadows, standing on third base representing the potential winning run as B¨¢ez hit his single, was thinking the same.

¡°It was weird,¡± Meadows said, ¡°because I hit home and I didn¡¯t realize. I thought he was out. I didn¡¯t know. And then I saw everybody cheer in the dugout and then [manager] A.J. [Hinch] came over and said, ¡®Did you touch home plate?¡¯ And I was like, ¡®I think I did.¡¯¡±

Reliever Jacob Barnes saw it from the television in the Tigers clubhouse, having just finished his work after pitching the eighth.

¡°When he hit it, we were like, ¡®Wait, that hit the wall,¡¯¡± Barnes said. ¡°We were going nuts in here.¡±

Pollock only knew the end result, not what happened behind him.

¡°It was kind of a funky play,¡± Pollock said. ¡°I knew I caught it. I had no idea if it hit the wall first.¡±

B¨¢ez only knew he¡¯d hit a game-winner.

¡°I thought it hit the glove and then the wall,¡± he said. ¡°I knew it hit the wall, but just didn't know if it was the wall first.¡±

After a replay review, the bounce off the wall became clear. Tigers players emptied from the dugout, storming the field in celebration after rallying off White Sox closer Liam Hendriks.

A year after Detroit suffered an 8-22 start and spent the rest of the season trying to dig out of it, the club picked up a signature win against the defending division champions, the team the Tigers targeted in their attempt to join the American League¡¯s contenders. In the process, they beat one of the toughest relievers in baseball.

Hendriks had never lost to the Tigers in 33 career appearances until Friday.

¡°They¡¯ve added a couple pieces that make their lineup significantly harder to pitch to,¡± Hendriks said. ¡°Two of those guys were the reason for the walk-off.¡±

B¨¢ez was the obvious one, though it wasn¡¯t obvious at the start. He struck out swinging in his first two at-bats against starter Lucas Giolito, both times with a runner on first. B¨¢ez¡¯s sixth-inning drive to left with two on took Andrew Vaughn back to the warning track. His first hit as a Tiger was an eighth-inning single, loading the bases for Miguel Cabrera¡¯s game-tying two-run single into shallow center off Hendriks -- Cabrera¡¯s 2,988th career hit.

The other hitter to which Hendriks referred was Meadows, who provided the Tigers¡¯ best plate appearances of the day with three walks and a triple against four pitchers, just four days after being acquired from the Rays. What looked like a surprise move from Hinch, hitting Meadows second, made him a table-setter.

Meadows was due up fourth in the bottom of the ninth, after Vaughn¡¯s homer off Tigers closer Gregory Soto put the White Sox back in front. Eric Haase, who entered as a pinch-hitter in the eighth and stayed in to catch, tied it again with an eight-pitch, all-fastball battle against Hendriks that ended with a home run to left.

All of the damage against Hendriks came off the fastball. Meadows didn¡¯t chase the closer¡¯s slider and worked a 3-1 count before he connected with a 98 mph heater just off the outside corner.

¡°He actually made a pretty good pitch,¡± Meadows said. ¡°I was just trying to be simple and use my hands, and I was able to hit the ball to right-center.¡±

Up came B¨¢ez, who swung and missed at Hendriks¡¯ first-pitch fastball in the zone.

¡°I'm going to swing hard,¡± B¨¢ez said. ¡°Sometimes I'm going to control it better than the first two at-bats, but I'm going to swing hard.¡±

With Hendriks ahead in the count, however, B¨¢ez prepared for a breaking ball.

¡°I was sitting on a slider there,¡± he said, ¡°and I just kind of reacted to the fastball and got to it.¡±

Yes, B¨¢ez caught up to a 98 mph fastball after thinking it would be a slider.

¡°I don't know how I did that,¡± he shrugged.

¡°He¡¯s a special hitter,¡± Hendriks said.