Tigers fans own 'The Athletic' and respond with historic Game 3 crowd at Comerica

On Oct. 8, The Athletic ranked the atmospheres of remaining playoff teams' home parks. The Detroit Tigers' Comerica Park came in dead last of the eight teams left in the race.

And the city of Detroit took that personally.

Tigers fans packed the park for the first playoff game in Detroit in 10 years. The 44,885 people in attendance were the largest playoff crowd in Comerica Park history. The Tigers' Twitter dubbed it the "best playoff atmosphere in baseball" — a shot at The Athletic, no doubt — and the fans brought the electricity. The Tigers posted the ranking on the video board during the game to rile the fans up even more, and they have the authors eating their words.

The crowd exploded with every Guardians strikeout and Tigers hit. Orange towels spiraled over the heads of the tens of thousands of people on their feet. Their cheers blew out the speakers on MLB's post of Spencer Torkelson's RBI double, which The Athletic reposted as an apology, of sorts.

Tigers fans at Comerica Park prove The Athletic's playoff atmosphere ranking wrong

The three American League Central teams still in the race ranked at the bottom half of the playoff atmosphere list, but Chad Jennings, Stephen J. Nesbitt and C. Trent Rosecrans seem to have underestimated Midwest baseball fans. Small markets will show out for their team when the time comes, and Tigers fans have proved that at the highest level — at 3:00 in the afternoon, no less.

Cleveland will face elimination in Detroit on Thursday, and if the crowd is anywhere near as electric as it was in Game 3, the Guardians will be in for another rough outing. The rest of MLB doesn't seem ready for what Detroit has in store if the Tigers make it to the ALCS and beyond.

In a wild turn of events, the Tigers didn't need motivation from an opponent to keep their magical run going — they got it from one of the most renowned sports publications who got ahead of themselves by taking the low-hanging fruit and ranking the bigger cities ahead of Detroit.