Tigers' Winning Ways Igniting A Buzz At Comerica Park
By Will Burchfield
@burchie_kid
To be honest, Brad Ausmus can't hear a thing.
He finds himself surrounded by "these giant fans" in the Tigers' dugout, humming quite loudly these days to beat back the summer heat. Within his own wind tunnel, the rest of the stadium feels very far away.
"It almost sounds deathly quiet," Ausmus said. "I can barely hear [Tigers bench coach] Gene Lamont sitting 15 feet away from me."
But those other fans, the ones that populate the green Comerica Park seats, have lately been creating some electricity of their own.
Justin Verlander – who put forth another fine performance in Friday night's 4-3 win over the Mets – has noticed.
"I think the fans have been really great, getting into games. It's nice to see because sometimes when we're not playing well it's a little flat here – and we play well at home, traditionally."
That's certainly held true of late.
The Tigers are 6-1 on their current nine-game homestand and will look to clinch their third straight series win at Comerica Park with a victory tomorrow over the Mets. Their recent crusade at Comerica has been full of thrilling moments, from their ninth-inning rally last Saturday to J.D. Martinez' pinch-hit home run on Wednesday night.
The Martinez moment pushed the crowd to new decibel levels in 2016.
"In the past four months that I've been on this club, I haven't seen the crowd get into a game like that," Francisco Rodriguez said afterward.
He later used the word "electric" to describe the atmosphere. And some of that wattage was quickly transferred to his arm.
"It took me only five pitches after that to get ready," he said.
From Ausmus' perspective, it was one of those rare moments when the fans drowned out, well, the fans.
"There are certain times where the noise comes up over the fan, and I think the loudest I've seen it in a while was J.D. the other night," Ausmus said.
But the recent buzz in Comerica Park hasn't been limited to a single moment. With the Tigers roaring back to life in the playoff race – they now sit just two games back of Cleveland in the A.L. Central – the excitement is spreading throughout this fan base like a wave in the crowd. And just as the players feed it, so do they feed off it.
"To get the fans back excited again and having them cheer us on and know when to cheer and how to cheer and what to cheer for, without prompting them, that really gets the players going, Verlander said.
The Tigers figure to draw sizeable crowds for the final two games of this homestand. They're playing well at a critical time of year and the fans have taken notice. Everyone wants to be a part of something special, to exist in a collective memory, and the Tigers are happy to have the company.
"I hope people are excited about this team," said Ian Kinsler. "We're playing really good baseball and we're having a lot of fun. We want everyone to join us – there's plenty of room on the bandwagon."