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Jul 23, 2009 - 4:49 PM By ANDY LEFKOWITZ STATS Editor

New York (44-50) at Houston (49-46), 8:05 p.m. EDT

Johan Santana's statistics show that he is the best pitcher in baseball after the All-Star break. This year, he didn't wait for the second half to begin displaying that level of dominance.

Santana will try to extend a 15-inning scoreless streak and help the New York Mets bounce back from possibly their worst series of the year when they face the surging Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park on Friday night.

New York (44-50) lost 3-1 to Washington on Wednesday, which followed a 4-0 defeat the previous night and gave them two losses in three games to the major leagues' worst team.

The rapidly fading Mets have scored one or no runs in 12 of 27 games since Carlos Beltran went on the disabled list June 22. They are 10-17 without their All-Star center fielder and have fallen 10 games behind first-place Philadelphia.

"We're not going to be able to go out there and score runs at will," third baseman David Wright said. "We really have to be clicking on all cylinders to score runs and obviously right now we are not."

That may be difficult to do with Beltran (knee) joining Carlos Delgado (hip) and Jose Reyes (calf) as key hitters to miss a large chunk of the season due to injury. The loss of pitchers J.J. Putz (elbow surgery) and John Maine (shoulder) hasn't helped matters.

Santana (11-7, 2.92 ERA) is one of the few Mets to avoid the injury bug, and he hasn't needed much help from the team's anemic lineup lately. The left-hander pitched a scoreless seventh during a loss to the Phillies on July 5, and threw seven innings without allowing a run in each of his last two starts.

He earned his first career win against Atlanta with a 5-1 victory on Saturday.

The two-time AL Cy Young Award winner is 59-17 with a 2.67 ERA following the All-Star break, and his .776 winning percentage is the highest post-break number in major league history among pitchers with at least 75 decisions.

New York's ace is 2-0 with a 0.98 ERA in three appearances - two starts - versus the Astros. He limited them to eight hits over seven innings during a 3-0 victory Aug. 22 at Shea Stadium.

Since consecutive shutout losses July 3-4, Houston (49-46) has gone 11-4 to move back into contention in the NL Central.

Carlos Lee and Miguel Tejada have keyed that surge. Lee is batting .362 (21 for 58) with three homers and 11 RBIs while Tejada is hitting .338 (22 for 65) with two homers and 12 RBIs.

Tejada's two-out walkoff single Wednesday gave the Astros a 4-3 win and a three-game sweep of division-leading St. Louis.

"We never quit," he told the Astros' official Web site. "Like I always say, right now we believe in what we have. I think anybody that steps up to the plate, we expect them to do something good."

Houston's Mike Hampton (5-7, 4.63) will try to avoid losing his third straight start. The left-hander surrendered five runs and seven hits over 5 2-3 innings Saturday in a 5-2 defeat to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Hampton - a 15-game winner for the Mets in 2000 - is 0-1 with a 6.43 ERA in his last three starts against New York.