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Aug 2, 2015 - 6:17 AM Houston's Collin McHugh has the chance to match Dallas Keuchel for the AL lead in victories a day after his teammate got win No. 13.

While Keuchel is pitching like a Cy Young contender and has dominated the opposition at home, McHugh hasn't been particularly sharp lately and is struggling in Houston.

McHugh looks to bounce back from another shaky outing and win a fourth consecutive start in the AL West-leading Astros' series finale with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday.

After dropping Friday's opener in 10 innings, the Astros (59-46) rebounded with a 9-2 victory Saturday for their ninth win in 12 contests to move three games ahead of second-place Los Angeles.

Hank Conger broke open the game with a fourth-inning grand slam - his second homer of the game - and Carlos Correa also went deep twice. It was the major league-leading 44th multihomer game for the Astros, who also lead all of baseball with 147 home runs.

"It's not a secret we've got a great team," said Correa, who has hit four of his 12 homers in the last five games. "We've got one of the best teams in baseball and we're going to go out there and compete."

Keuchel's 25-inning home scoreless streak ended in the second inning when gave up two runs, two hits and walked three, but the Astros staff allowed no hits and one walk the rest of the way.

Keuchel moved a win ahead of McHugh (12-5, 4.43 ERA) and Seattle's Felix Hernandez by improving to 10-0 with a 1.26 ERA in Houston.

McHugh has also found success at Minute Maid Park with an 8-2 record, but he's racked up those wins despite a 5.22 ERA. The last pitcher to have at least eight home wins in a season with a plus-5.00 ERA was Jorge De La Rosa, who went 10-6 with a 5.21 ERA at home for Colorado in 2009.

McHugh has regularly had to work out of trouble in his last three starts - all at home - surrendering 25 hits over 18 innings. Against the Angels on Tuesday, the right-hander gave up seven hits with four walks and let in five runs in five innings but was bailed out by his offense in a 10-5 win. He has a 7.57 run-support average in his victories.

"Wins and losses is not irrelevant when it comes to pitchers, but team wins and losses are a lot more important," McHugh told MLB's official website.

McHugh, who was tagged for six runs over five innings in his only start against Arizona (50-52) in 2013, has a 7.00 ERA in losing all three career starts against NL teams in Houston.

The Diamondbacks' Robbie Ray (3-5, 2.70) has fared much better against the opposite league.

The 23-year-old left-hander continued his dominance of the NL on Monday, allowing two runs with a career high-tying eight strikeouts in seven innings of a 4-3, 10-inning win at Seattle. The only times he has lasted seven innings this season have come in his three interleague starts - all in AL parks - and he's gone 2-0 with a 0.83 ERA.

Ray made his big league debut in his only appearance against the Astros on May 6, 2014, allowing a run and five hits in 5 1-3 innings of an 11-4 win for Detroit.

Arizona manager Chip Hale said rookie right fielder Yasmany Tomas will be back in the lineup Sunday after being removed in Saturday's sixth inning for not running hard on a groundout.






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