The formula is basic and stands the test of time:

If the Twins are in the playoff hunt, then the Yankees should desire to play them.

Or do you think they’d rather take their chances against these Indians? These Indians who treated Yankee Stadium like their personal Xanadu on Thursday night?

By thrashing the Yankees, 19-5, the Indians remained a half-game behind the Twins — who beat the Rangers — in the American League Central, which goes down as a pinstriped negative. If the playoffs started today, the Yankees, with the AL’s best record, would face the winner of the Rays-at-Indians wild-card game, and the Twins, seeded third, would open at the second-seeded Astros.

Surely if administered a truth serum, the Yankees would admit to preferring the Twins, or the Rays, to the Indians, in the best-of-five round.

“It’s a team that presents a lot of challenges,” Aaron Boone said of Cleveland before the game. “Really good pitching staff, obviously. Really good starters to go along with the good pen, and a lineup with some star players in it. Obviously a lot of switch hitters, so they create some matchup issues.

“They’ve obviously brought in some guys in [Yasiel] Puig and [Franmil] Reyes, some right-handed thump that it gives them. So they’re a challenge.”

Cleveland’s offense, its Achilles’ heel at the season’s outset, put on quite the show courtesy of the revived Jose Ramirez, one of the switch hitters to which Boone referred, who slammed two homers, including a first-inning grand slam, and drove home six runs; old pal Carlos Santana (two homers, four RBIs); and high-profile trade acquisition Yasiel Puig (two singles, two RBIs), among others. Starting with a beatdown of opener Chad Green, who gave up five runs in one-third of an inning, the Indians smoked the Yankees so badly that Boone resorted to pitching designated-hitter Mike Ford in the eighth and ninth. The Indians have now won 44 of their past 63 games.

“This is the type of game that you remember,” Ramirez said through an interpreter. “… Hopefully we run into them or not in the playoffs, but they’re a really competitive team, and it’s a good feeling when you get a good result like today.”

“It’s nice,” Cleveland’s veteran second baseman Jason Kipnis said. “We’ve got guys who haven’t played here before. It makes it a little easier for them to relax. Obviously this can be a little bit of an imposing venue.”

The Indians can be a little bit of an imposing opponent. Starting pitcher Adam Plutko limited the Yankees to three runs in six innings, and he’s unlikely to even be part of a playoff starting rotation that should feature two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber (if he fully rehabilitates his fractured right ulna bone), Shane Bieber, Mike Clevinger and Zach Plesac. The Indians’ bullpen began the day ranked third in baseball with 4.8 wins above replacement, as per FanGraphs; the Yankees, with 6.2, placed first.

Throw in Cleveland’s battle-tested manager Terry Francona and maybe even a thirst for revenge after the Yankees’ stunning upset of these guys in the 2017 ALDS, and you can understand why the Yankees would rather have the Astros deal with them while they get a less complete, less experienced October entry, especially when you factor in the success they have registered against the Twins (4-2) and Rays (12-5, with two games left).

If this sounds vaguely familiar, you’re recalling 2010, when the Yankees eased up on the gas pedal in their AL East tête-à-tête with the Rays because they didn’t mind settling for the wild card and taking on the AL Central-winning Twins instead of Cliff Lee’s Rangers. They of course have faced Minnesota five times in the postseason — the ALDS in 2003, 2004, 2009 and ’10, plus the ’17 AL wild-card contest — and eliminated the Twins each and every time.

While the Yankees can do only so much to control their first-round matchup, it wouldn’t hurt them to keep an eye on it. And to pray to the baseball gods to take them somewhere besides “The Rock and Roll Capital of the World” in October’s first week.