DETROIT -- The Tigers were still celebrating their first postseason berth in a decade when Tarik Skubal raised the bar.

“The fans here are great,” Skubal said that night. “The goal is hopefully to play another game in front of them after [the regular-season finale].”

Skubal saw the crowds that packed Comerica Park for the stretch run, and for Miguel Cabrera’s farewell last year, for Cabrera’s 3,000th hit the year before that and for Miggy’s 500-homer chase the year before that. Skubal saw what he had heard about Detroit: When Comerica Park is packed, it’s an intense place.

“When you see those crowds,” Skubal said, “what we’re doing now is pretty special too.”

He and teammates saw how Detroit rallied for the Lions during their playoff run last fall and winter, and wondered if they could create the same.

• Guardians-Tigers ALDS Game 3 FAQ

A dozen days and three road playoff wins later, it’s here. When the Tigers take the field on Wednesday afternoon for Game 3 of the AL Division Series against the Guardians, it’ll mark the first postseason game at Comerica Park since Game 3 of the 2014 AL Division Series.

They’ve competed and won in front of hostile environments, silencing opposing crowds, to get to this point. Now as they look for an edge against Cleveland and a series lead, they get to experience a crowd in their favor and against their opponents.

“I think a lot of our guys are anxious to get to tomorrow's game to see Comerica at its best,” manager A.J. Hinch said Tuesday. “We got to see it a little bit when we clinched against the White Sox. We've seen it at various games celebrating somebody, whether it was Jim Leyland or Miguel Cabrera or the '84 team. There's been a lot of buzz around our ballpark at different times.

“But I think our guys know we've earned this game and this appreciation from our city by how we've played. And we had to earn it to get here. We had to win a series on the road in Houston to make this playoff game happen. And I know our players appreciate playing in Detroit, [in front of] our fans.”

This is what Detroit sports fans had been holding their breath for, so to speak. To understand what it means, consider what much of the last 10 years were like on the Detroit sports scene as the Tigers, Lions, Red Wings and Pistons looked to build around young talent and player development. Rarely does a city with four pro sports teams go multiple years with all of them on the outside of the postseason picture.

“They're learning more and more about the patience,” Hinch said. “A lot of these guys haven't been here during this 10-year stretch very long. So when they get asked about it, they're learning more and more about the timeline.”

That pent-up enthusiasm was evident with the Lions last fall, and again when the Red Wings took their chase for a playoff berth into the final day of the NHL regular season, barely missing out on a Wild Card spot. It became evident with the Tigers over the final week of the regular season, as what looked like a longshot to get to the playoffs became reality in a matter of days.

“I can only imagine it's going to be pretty electric,” Matt Vierling said. “We've heard about what a playoff atmosphere is like here in Detroit. Pretty crazy, pretty excited. And just the overall vibe of the city right now with how well the Lions are doing, and it's been 10 years since we've had a playoff baseball game back here in Detroit.”

Skubal won’t get to experience it from the mound, not in this round anyway, but he’ll get to take it in from the dugout.