KANSAS CITY -- Eloy Jiménez thoroughly enjoyed his Major League debut, which came during a 5-3 White Sox loss to the Royals on Opening Day at Kauffman Stadium on Thursday. The game was delayed by rain for 1 hour, 46 minutes.

But the No. 3 prospect in baseball, per MLB Pipeline, admitted Game 1 was tough because he was a little too anxious.

“I’m going to control that,” said Jimenez with a smile after the White Sox comeback fell just short. “I’m going to adjust.”

Jimenez actually was part of the three-run ninth inning that came after the White Sox did very little over the first eight against Brad Keller and Ian Kennedy. With the bases loaded and one out, Jimenez was hit by a Jake Diekman pitch on his left foot to force home a run.

It stood as a painful way to pick up career RBI No. 1. Jimenez actually would have preferred a game-changing double or home run, picking up two or three runs.

“I wanted three, but God gave me one,” said Jimenez with a laugh.

“Today was a great learning experience for him to know they’re not going to just give him cookies,” White Sox manager Rick Renteria said. “He’s going to have to look, as a big league hitter does, look for mistakes out over the plate and when they don’t want to give in to him he’s going to have to take his bases.”

During Jimenez’s four at-bats on Thursday, with three coming against Keller and the one against Diekman, 13 of the 17 pitches offered to him were sliders. He struck out swinging the first two at-bats and then grounded out in the seventh.

Opposing pitchers figure to stick with this plan until Jimenez proves he can adjust, albeit the plan covered only four plate appearances. But Jimenez doesn’t seem worried, just as as he didn’t seem concerned during a 4-for-24 stretch in Spring Training.

“Don’t be too anxious and try to get your pitch. Don’t swing at the pitcher’s pitch,” said Jimenez about knowledge gained from the opener. “I just need to be calm and try to see the ball up. Today was the first game and I think that’s why I was swinging at too many balls in the dirt. But I’m going to adjust.”

“He’s a very polished offensive talent,” said White Sox general manager Rick Hahn of Jimenez. “We saw it a little bit early in camp when he was pressing a little bit, some of the way pitchers were attacking him was a little bit different from what he had seen before. He’s going to have to make some adjustments along the way.”

Hahn added if Jimenez does get off to a hot start, pitchers will quickly adjust and “then the game of cat and mouse is going to be on.” Jimenez also had one tough read defensively on a Jorge Soler run-scoring double in the seventh, but the ball was hit too low and hard as opposed to Jimenez not picking it up.

Jimenez’s parents, brother, uncles and agent were some of the support group on hand Thursday at Kauffman Stadium. But with Jimenez signed to a six-year, $43 million deal, with two option years possibly taking it to $75 million over eight, the story with Jimenez is really about his immense contributions long term.

There’s still no question it was good for him to get this first game out of the way.

“Yeah, I was a little nervous, but that feeling I’m never going to forget,” Jimenez said. “I don’t feel sad. I feel good. It’s the first game. It’s on the books. I’m going to be ready for the next game.”