HOUSTON -- The New York Yankees will look to continue exceeding expectations this season Friday by clinching a spot in the 2017 World Series. Most, including myself, saw them as a fringe contender coming into the year. Instead, they won 91 games and are a win away from their 41st pennant.

The Yankees, as you know, beat the Twins in the AL Wild Card Game then rallied to come back from down 2-0 to beat the 102-win Indians in the ALDS. They then fell behind 2-0 to the 101-win Astros in the ALCS before coming back to take a 3-2 series lead. And they've done all that despite getting close to nothing from the DH spot. The DH numbers:

  • Wild Card Game: 0 for 4
  • ALDS: 0 for 16 with three walks and eight strikeouts
  • ALCS Games 1-3: 1 for 10 with two strikeouts

Chase Headley, Jacoby Ellsbury and Matt Holliday have split time at DH this postseason. Holliday had a miserable second half and has started just one postseason game, ALCS Game 1 against Dallas Keuchel, during which he went 0 for 3. Headley has gotten more at-bats than Ellsbury as the DH so far.

New York's DH spot started the postseason 0 for 28 with nine strikeouts before finally recording their first hit, and it was an important hit. It was also a weak hit. Headley drove in a run in Game 3 with a well-placed ground ball single that never made it to an outfielder.

Sometimes that's all it takes to break out of a slump. A little seeing-eye ground ball single or a bloop. It's not sexy, but it's a hit, and it can raise a hitter's confidence.

Since that little well-placed grounder, Headley has gone 5 for 7 in the ALCS and helped bring new life to the Yankees offense. He had three hits in the Game 5 win Wednesday and has relegated Ellsbury and Holliday to well-paid spectator status. The Yankees were waiting for someone to grab hold of the DH spot and Headley did it.

And, really, there were signs Headley was about to break out earlier in the ALCS. His 0 for 3 in Game 2 featured two hard-hit line drives -- Statcast measured their exit velocity at 96.1 mph and 96.2 mph -- that were caught for outs, one of which Josh Reddick robbed at the wall with a great leaping catch.

In Game 3, Headley had another line drive go for an out in his first at-bat, that one measuring at 98.6 mph. The quality of his contact was improving and eventually the hits started falling in. That's usually how things go when a hitter snaps out of a slump. They gradually progress from ugly at-bats to better at-bats to loud outs to hits.

"I think you just have to keep in mind that sometimes in 15 at-bats things aren't going to go your way," said Headley following his 3 for 4 effort in Game 5. "And the last four or five at-bats before I started getting some hits I had some better at-bats. Just tried to stick with the plan and trust results were going to come."

The Yankees overcame the lack of DH production to win the Wild Card Game and the ALDS, but chances were they wouldn't survive the ALCS while getting nothing from the DH, the same way they wouldn't survive had Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez continued to slump. Judge and Sanchez broke out and that's important. Now Headley is producing as well, giving the Yankees more production at DH and making their lineup that much deeper and more dangerous.

"It's great. (Headley has) had five hits in the last couple of days, which I think is big," said Yankees skipper Joe Girardi following his team's Game 5 win. "When you get in these type of series, you don't know where the runs are going to come from, you just need production from certain groups that are together and it's great for him and us."