AJ Hinch's perfect celebration speech after WC sets Tigers up for well-matched ALDS

The Tigers popped the champagne in the visiting clubhouse of their greatest foes, the guys who they went 1-5 against at the end of the regular season and who they ceded a 15.5-game division lead to dating back to July. For the petty among us (and let's be honest, Tigers fans were feeling very petty), it was almost sweeter that they got to do it in Cleveland.

AJ Hinch had some instantly iconic pre-champagne speeches last year — "I'm not sure who, but somebody let the Tigers get hot" — and he did it again on Thursday, after the Tigers won Game 3 of the Wild Card series to move on to the ALDS against the Mariners.

He said, "This should feel really good, not only because of what we've done but where we're doing it. They test us, and test us, and test us, and we keep answering. [...] Our first win of the year was where? Let's go back to Seattle." And the champagne flew.

The Tigers were swept in their season-opening series against the Dodgers, but moved on to Seattle to take two from the Mariners (and then they got swept in July, but we don't have to dwell on that part too much).

AJ Hinch orchestrates another storybook moment for Tigers after defeating Guardians in Wild Card

As Grant Bisbee of The Athletic pointed out, the Tigers and Mariners have an identical pythagorean win-loss regular season record of 88-74 and have the closest run differential of any of the LDS matchups (Detroit 67, Seattle 72), which makes this a pretty well-met series on paper. The Tigers have momentum and finally looked like the team that fans were used to seeing in the first half of the year when they beat the Guardians; the Mariners are high off of winning their division for the first time since 2001.

The Mariners, of course, have Cal Raleigh and one of the more across-the-board solid rotations in baseball, but ace Bryan Woo's status going into the series is still unclear. Seattle also doesn't have a single lefty in the rotation (and just two lefty relievers), which should work well for the Tigers' lefty-dominant offense. And the Mariners are cursed with some kind of affliction that makes it impossible for their fans to ever be too confident.

The key is the Tigers' offense waking up like they did in Game 3 of the Wild Card. If that was a sign of things to come, they should make it tough on the Mariners.