Didi Gregorius has made the shortstop transition seamless for Yankees

Didi Gregorius has a knack for giving the Yankees just what they need exactly when they need it. A spectacular play at shortstop? No problem. A routine catch? It’s his pleasure. Did someone say a cleanup hitter was in demand? Check.

And, of course, there was the one from a few years back: A strong and steady replacement for a retiring icon? Gregorius is your man.

On Tuesday night, in the postseason — the favorite time of year for the fellow who held the position before him — Gregorius gave the Yankees an unusual combination of adrenaline and equilibrium. After the Twins had shocked the ballpark with three runs against Luis Severino, Gregorius got the club and its fans both pumped up and calmed down with a three-run home run in the bottom of the first inning. Just the right time.

“Our motto from the whole year is, ‘We never quit.’ We’ve always got to play hard,” Gregorius said after the 8-4 win in the wild-card game. “We were down 3-0 but it was only the first inning. We’ve got a lot of game left.”

Joe Girardi said the fact that the comeback occurred so soon after the Twins’ 3-0 start was vitally important.

“Scoring those three runs in the first inning, that’s what I’ve seen all year long. I saw it in spring training,” the manager said.

David Robertson, who came in and got the win in early relief, said there were exuberant high-fives in the bullpen.

Gregorius added extra flair to his home run trot, which was more of a home run sprint, concluding with midair chest bumps with Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge.

“Normally you see when I hit a home run, I don’t do anything. I just run the bases,” he said. “But I was hyping. I was trying to get the game going, trying to get the guys going. That’s what we do, we pass the baton to the next guy and we go in the right direction.”

Check and double-check. Whoever was going to replace Derek Jeter at shortstop was going to have his hands full. Since Gregorius became a Yankee before the 2015 season, he has made the transition seamless for the team and its fans.

Teammates say he always is happy. Much more to the point, he is productive. He broke you-know-who’s single-season team record for homers by a shortstop with 25. Then he hit his most important home run of the year in the bottom of the first of the wild-card game — just in time, before doubt or panic could take root in the Stadium.

That was what any club would hope to get from its cleanup hitter. So is the respect that Twins manager Paul Molitor showed by ordering Gregorius intentionally walked with no outs and runners on second and third in the seventh.

For his part, Gregorius does not think of himself as a prototypical power source or cleanup batter. He is a man for the moment, providing whatever the moment might require.

“It’s just the beginning,” he said as he held a huge gold-colored bottle of champagne in the middle of the clubhouse, after having been in the heart of a win. “Now we’ve got to go to Cleveland and play our game.”