Scenes inside Comerica Park before Tigers-Mariners Game 3 of ALDS
Comerica Park, rain and all, is buzzing more than an hour before the Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners play Game 3 of the ALDS on Oct. 7, 2025.
The game was scheduled to start shortly after 4 p.m. but was delayed due to rain.Visitors came from across metro Detroit and as far away as Tennessee to watch the game.
Tigers fans wanted more to cheer.
They’d waited 16 days for the Tigers to make it back home. They waited through gray skies and unrelenting rain from morning to afternoon Tuesday, delaying by three hours the start of Game 3 of the AL Division Series against the Seattle Mariners.
And then came the game, with Mariners pitcher Logan Gilbert smothering the Tigers’ offense for much of the way, and a defensive miscue by the Tigers on an un-caught throw to the cutoff man by Riley Greene giving the Mariners a lead they built and built upon.
By the 8th inning, with the score 8-1 Seattle, many of the Tigers faithful were streaming for the exits..
“It’s like a five-hour drive home,” said Tigers fan Jake Wheeler, 25, of Seymour, Indiana.
Eric Davis, 30, of Roseville has been a Tigers fan his whole life and he was excited to see his first playoff game.“I was hoping to see a Tigers win but they just can’t seem to get anything going,” he said as he was leaving Comerica Park. Asked about his early departure, he said, “I’ve been down here since 3 p.m.”
A mini-rally by the Tigers in the bottom of the 9th inning raised hopes, but it ultimately fell short, and the team lost to the Mariners, 8-4. Seattle can now wrap up the Division Series on the Tigers’ home field on Wednesday, Oct. 8, or a Tigers win can send the series back to a decisive Game 5 in Seattle on Friday with Tarik Skubal back on the mound for the Tigers.
After more than two weeks away, Detroit Tigers fans welcomed their suddenly resurgent team back home Tuesday undampened − in spirit at least − by the steady rain and gray skies to start the day.
Among the diehard Tigers fans who braved rainy conditions in Detroit on Tuesday were Trista Janes, 33, and her father Tom Grenke, 66, both of Roseville. The two refused to let the weather ruin their experience as they took in the block party outside Comerica Park’s main entrance ahead of the game.
“Playoffs don’t come all the time. We’re season ticket holders, so we normally come rain or shine, and we’re hoping for the win so we can keep on going,” Janes said.
Grenke, a 49-year veteran of Tigers opening day games, said he had an unexpected reunion with an old friend during the rain delay, whom he hadn’t seen in over a decade.
“We used to work together and I stood up in his wedding,” Grenke said, “That was really great seeing him. I actually got his phone number now, so that was great.”
Matt Deiterick, 14, was the first fan to scan his ticket and enter at his gate as the park opened. Accompanied by his mother and equipped with a flashy red baseball glove, Deiterick traveled farther than most to make the game − all the way from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to see his Tigers take on the Mariners.
Deiterick said his goal was a game ball in the stands − ideally a Tigers home run off the bat of his favorite player, Javier Báez.
“The Tigers will win by 20!” he said.
Neither the rain nor a fractured foot stopped 12-year-old Tigers fan Lyndon Garrett of Redford from attending Tuesday’s Game 3 of the ALDS.
“I was playing football. I got a tackle, and then I landed funny,” said Lyndon, who was on crutches in the rain. “But I’m still looking forward to seeing a few home runs from the Tigers, and us winning.”
Lyndon’s father, Phillip Garrett, 44, has been bringing his kids to Tigers games for years, continuing a family tradition he was part of as a kid himself.
“As soon as we knew they locked it up, we were gonna be here, as soon as they won that first game (of the ALDS in Seattle),” Phillip said. “We knew there was a chance that this could be either the closing game or a big game in the series.”
“We’re excited about this run. There are only eight teams left.”
A soggy session
As the rain continued to fall, the concourse was jammed with fans trying to stay dry. Rain ponchos, some of them official with the Old English “D,” some seeming made from clear plastic trash bags, crinkled as the fans brushed past each other to find a hot dog or a beer line.
Playing hooky
Dan Riley of St. Clair sat under a Comerica Park stairwell, dodging raindrops during the rain delay with his 9-year-old son, also named Dan. The older Riley drives a gravel truck and got the day off because of the rain. He figured it was good luck.
“I took my son out of school early to bring him down to the game,” he said.
The younger Dan Riley’s fourth-grade class runs till about 3:30 p.m. He was pleased when his dad showed up at 2 p.m.
“I haven’t been to a Tigers game in a while and I’ve never been to a playoff game,” he said.
Anna Christian, 70, of Flint, came with her husband, Anthony, and her friend, Julie Garcia. The trio was to meet Christian’s oldest daughter, her husband and her two grandchildren at the park for the game.
“We just decided in the last 24 hours to get these tickets because we wanted to be here for the big playoff game,” Anna Christian said. “I have never been to a playoff game. I’ve been a Tiger fan since the day I was born, and I’ve watched a lot of games from home − I’ve been to many, many, many games in person − but never a playoff game. I went to the last game at the old Tiger Stadium and the first game at Comerica Park.”
Said Garcia: “They needed to come home. They needed to get their feet on hallowed ground in order to go to victory again. So we’re gonna get it. We’re gonna get it this time.”
Ready for reset
What a difference 16 days can make.
The last time Detroit Tigers fans saw their team at Comerica Park was Sept. 21 against the Atlanta Braves. The Tigers were completing a 0-6 home stand amid a late-season, weeks-long swoon that saw the team lose a 15½-game lead in the American League Central to the Cleveland Guardians, relegating the Tigers to the final American League wild-card spot as the playoffs began.
But the postseason can be a reset button.
The Tigers went to Cleveland and beat the Guardians two out of three games in their house. It earned the Tigers a trip to the ALDS and another road trip to the resting AL West Champion Seattle Mariners. The Tigers split the two games in Seattle, giving them an opportunity to close out the series at Comerica Park with wins on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Mariners, however, could also end the series in Detroit with two wins, adding to the delicious tension of the MLB postseason.
The rainy weather actually facilitated Steve Oshinsky, 58, of West Bloomfield, attending on Tuesday. He said he wasn’t planning to go to the Tigers game, but that changed when he looked outside this morning.
“When I saw the rain falling this morning, I went online to see if there were any cheap tickets,” he said. “I bought two out in left field for $50.”
He and his wife, Miriam, wore rain gear just in case. “We thought, what the hell, why not be here?” he said.
Eric Montaleo 32, of Detroit, had a special reason to come to Tuesday’s playoff game.
“It’s her birthday,” he said, pointing at his 9-year-old daughter, Natalia. “She always wanted to go to a playoff game, and I promised her if I could make it happen, we would.”
Montaleo said he scored some tickets in left field on Monday. They aren’t as good as the tickets he normally gets, but this is playoff baseball, so he was fine with it.
“It’s really fun and Detroit is the best,” said Natalia, as she clutched her purple, black and white baseball glove in her hand.
She doesn’t play the game herself, but she watches the games closely, and Riley Greene is her favorite player.
She said she is excited to celebrate her birthday with her dad, and she predicted a Tigers win.
“Because we’re number one,” she said.
Mariners fans make the big trip to be here, too
It wasn’t all Tigers fans in the park Tuesday. Some Mariners fans made the 2,000-mile journey to cheer on their team.
Greg Powell, 50, of Seattle is a Mariners season ticket holder. He flew to Detroit Monday night after attending the first two games of the series in Seattle.
“We go to every game and the Mariners don’t make the playoffs too often,” he said.
He’s followed his team to 18 ball parks and said he’s enjoyed his visit to Detroit.
“I’ve been telling a lot of the fans here the same thing,” he said. “When I was a kid in the ’80s, you’d hear these stories about Detroit and Pittsburgh and whatever being bad, and I got here for the first time. It’s clean. Everybody’s super nice. It’s beautiful,” he said.
With Powell was his friend, Wallace Watts, 66, of Seattle, an online celebrity known as Capt. Seahawk for his support of Seattle’s NFL team. Watts was decked out in a tuxedo in Mariners colors and carried a gold plastic trident.
This isn’t his first visit to Detroit. He visited last year for the NFL draft.
“I announced a draft pick for the Seahawks,” he said.