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Aug 1, 2015 - 6:28 AM Dallas Keuchel had one of his worst efforts of the season in his latest start but a return to Houston might be what he needs to put that behind quickly.

The Astros left-hander will try to extend his 24-inning home scoreless streak and become the AL's first 13-game winner Saturday night, but he will have to face the surging Arizona Diamondbacks.

Keuchel (12-5, 2.32 ERA) yielded four runs in the first inning in Sunday's 5-1 loss to Kansas City. He also gave up a season-high 10 hits in 6 2-3 innings and matched his most runs allowed this season with five.

Keuchel will try to shake that off by extending the longest home scoreless streak by an Astros pitcher since Hall of Famer Randy Johnson had a 36-inning run in 1998.

"It's going to be a fight the rest of the year, just because we're in the playoff hunt and every team's looking to put their best foot forward,'' said Keuchel, whose team is two games ahead of Los Angeles in the AL West.

Keuchel, 10-0 with 1.33 ERA in his last 14 home games dating to last season, will also try to join Johnson as the only pitchers in team history with four consecutive scoreless home starts of seven innings or more Saturday. Johnson is also the last in the majors to accomplish that feat.

Keuchel will face a team that's won six in a row after a 6-4 victory in 10 innings in Friday's series opener. The Diamondbacks (50-51) rallied from a three-run deficit to send Houston (58-46) to just its second loss in 14 home games.

Welington Castillo and Jake Lamb had the final of Arizona's 14 hits with their back-to-back homers in the 10th. Arizona is batting .347 with 22 runs in its past three games after hitting .235 and averaging 3.2 runs in its previous 15.

Castillo's homer was his fourth in three games, and he'll try to add to that binge while helping the Diamondbacks extend their longest win streak since a nine-game run in August 2011.

Jeremy Hellickson (7-6, 4.60) will try to build on a superb July for a team that has posted a 1.90 ERA by its starting pitchers in the past eight games. The right-hander went 2-1 with a 1.88 ERA in four starts last month and lasted six innings in a 3-0 win over Milwaukee on Sunday.

"I don't know what the word is for it, but you really don't want to be the guy (that ends the streak)," Hellickson said.

Hellickson also got the benefit of making three home starts in July. He's 0-2 with a 7.58 ERA in his last four road games and had his most recent one - July 8 against Texas - cut short after allowing two runs in four innings because of a blister on his right thumb.

Hellickson will make his first start against Houston and will try to lead Arizona to its first five-game road win streak since May 6-18, 2013.

Keuchel is 1-1 with a 1.84 ERA in two career home starts against the Diamondbacks, tossing eight innings of one-run ball to beat them last June.






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