Manager Joe Girardi sat in an overstuffed chair in his office Tuesday afternoon and one by one took inventory of his seemingly bottomless well of relievers and what they ought to be able to provide him in the American League wild-card playoff game that evening.

“I have a ton of innings down there,” Girardi said confidently.

As it turned out that evening, the Yankees’ bullpen needed to be even deeper than Girardi imagined to rescue the Yankees from a disastrous start by their ace, Luis Severino. After relief came, the Yankees’ hitters took over, with home runs from Didi Gregorius, Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge carrying the team to an 8-4 victory over the Minnesota Twins.

The Yankees, who reached the division series for the first time since 2012, will begin a five-game series against the Indians in Cleveland on Thursday night.

It might have been predictable that the Yankees prevailed over the Twins — they have now eliminated them from the playoffs five times in the last 14 seasons and have lost one season series to them in 25 years. But the manner in which they dispatched the visitors was not.