Playoff celebration with Tigers legend has Detroit vibes at an all-time high

We may never come down from the high of watching Andy Ibáñez shoot a line drive deep into the left field corner at Minute Maid Park against $19 million reliever Josh Hader that sent three Tigers sliding into home to break a 2-2 tie against the postseason-inevitable Astros. The scrappy, underdog Tigers swept the Astros to end Houston's playoff hopes at the earliest stage in any of the 18 years they've played October baseball.

The Tigers swarmed the field and celebrated in front of some truly miserable-looking Astros fans who are so used to watching their team win. That's what they get for booing Tarik Skubal during an injury delay! (And, like, all of the other stuff too.)

The champagne and cigar celebration followed soon after, with AJ Hinch in Houston's visiting clubhouse during a postseason for the first time in his career. Before the bottles were popped and the champagne rained down, he said, "Listen, I'm not sure who, but somebody let the Tigers get hot."

At some point, the Tigers pulled in Detroit legend and Hall of Famer Alan Trammell into the festivities, and doused him in beer. He said, "I've seen some of these young kids go from rookie ball to major league players. [...] I'm a Tiger at heart, you know that."

Tigers invite Hall of Famer and lifelong Tiger Alan Trammell into Wild Card celebration

There was a lot of poeticism to the Tigers' win in Houston. Hinch's career looked like it might end after his tenure with the Astros came to a close, but the Tigers took a chance on him. They beat a Detroit native — a guy who has a tiger tattooed on his arm — in Hunter Brown, and they did it in front of a homegrown guy who's headed for Cooperstown in Justin Verlander. This was the Tigers' first postseason series since 2014; not only did they end one of the longest playoff droughts in baseball, they did it with a sweep.

Trammell couldn't have chosen a better thing to say: "I'm a Tiger at heart." Despite the fact that his three-year managerial stint in Detroit didn't go the way anyone wanted it to, there's clearly no bad blood here. A guy who played for the Tigers for 20 seasons will always be part of the fabric of the organization.

Detroit will get a break on Thursday and Friday before going to Cleveland for the first game of the ALDS. Game 3 of that series will be set at Comerica, the first time the park will host an October game in 10 years. Come one, come all, Tigers legends. This is what it's all about.