"They're an outstanding baseball team, and there's no question they're definitely going to come out of it because they compete too good," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. "I would still say that they're the odds-on favorite to win their division because they can do it a lot of different ways. And their manager's tremendous."

Leyland has a pretty good concept of what counterpart Mike Scioscia is dealing with. Leyland managed Darryl Kile when they were with the Colorado Rockies in 1999, and was an advance scout with St. Louis in 2002 when Kile was found dead in his hotel room.

"I don't think you can really tell someone else how to deal with it, because people are all different and people mourn differently," said Leyland, who chatted with Scioscia during batting practice. "I mean, this is a crusher. This is a devastating loss - forget the baseball part of it. I mean, a young kid like that. But I don't think you can plan on how to handle it. You just have to handle it yourself and give everybody else their space to handle it however they want to handle it.

"I think the toughest part is that, if you try to turn the page and go on, I think sometimes we get a guilt complex about maybe not feeling as sorry as we're supposed to," Leyland added. "You never want to be disrespectful - but at the same time, you do have to go on. So it's really a catch-22."

Jose Arredondo (1-0) pitched a hitless eighth inning for the win and Brian Fuentes got three outs for his third save.

Hunter drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, then advanced to second on Kendry Morales' flyout. One out later, Matthews - starting in right field for the injured Vladimir Guerrero - lined an 0-1 pitch off the center-field fence and clapped his hands emphatically as he reached second.

"I'm definitely not trying to show up anyone, because I'm not like that. But you've got all this pent-up emotion," Matthews said. "This is something few teams have had to deal with. So when you get a big hit, sometimes it spills out.

"It's obviously an emotional team right now, and I don't know if there's a better situation than to go out and have an emotional win," Matthews added. "It was not a bad time to do it, with us having such a tough road trip. We've got some fire and passion and emotion right now. Hopefully we can point it all in the right direction."

At Cleveland, Grady Sizemore hit a three-run homer and the Indians turned double plays in six straight innings.

Aaron Laffey (1-0) gave up a run in the first - the only run he allowed in seven innings - and was helped by double-play grounders in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

Kansas City rallied for four runs in the eighth, but that threat ended when Miguel Olivo bounced into a double play with the tying run on first base.

The six double plays tied a club record for the Indians and set a team mark for the Royals.