HOUSTON -- With his hat pulled down and his attention focused intently on the task at hand, Tampa Bay Rays rookie right-hander Austin Pruitt effectively ignored the distractions of pitching in his hometown and produced a performance worthy of a bright smile.

Pruitt delivered the best start of his young career, and the Rays turned some early offense into a 3-0 victory over the Houston Astros on Wednesday night at Minute Maid Park.

Born in The Woodlands, a sprawling suburb north of Houston, Pruitt (6-2) pitched at the University of Houston. With a vocal contingent providing support, he tossed 6 1/3 scoreless innings in his return home, allowing five hits and one walk while recording three strikeouts.

The Astros (69-38) pushed baserunners into scoring position against Pruitt in the third, fourth and sixth innings. In the third and sixth, Pruitt induced inning-ending, double-play grounders to escape unscathed; Jose Altuve and Yuli Gurriel grounded out to snuff those threats.

Prior to Pruitt, the last Houston native to win in his first career start at Minute Maid Park was former Yankees right-hander Nathan Eovaldi, who defeated the Astros 3-2 on June 26, 2015.

"It was awesome to get in front of all the people I grew up in front of, and throwing against the Astros was cool," said Pruitt, who had roughly 200 supporters in attendance.

"I just tried to block everything out, but I tried to show them a little bit of love as I walked off the mound. Just stuck with the routine and just went out there and did it."

Tampa Bay (56-53) mustered all of the offense it needed in the first inning when designated hitter Logan Morrison bashed his 28th home run, a two-run shot to right-center field off Astros left-hander Dallas Keuchel.

"It's good," Morrison said of the early offense. "I don't think we really care as long as we win the game. Winning these two games, hopefully we can win tomorrow and salvage the road trip."

Corey Dickerson, Trevor Plouffe and Adeiny Hechavarria each recorded multi-hit games for the Rays, who handed the Astros their fourth shutout loss of the season and second in a week.

Houston finished 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.

"It was a good night for him, frustrating for us," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Pruitt. "All three double-play balls we hit into were opportunities where we felt like we were building innings."

The Rays had five two-out hits against Keuchel, starting with the Morrison home run. That marked just the second homer that Keuchel allowed to a left-handed hitter this season. Keuchel later allowed an RBI single to another left-handed hitter, Brad Miller.

Even though Keuchel escaped the second inning unscathed, he was forced to dodge additional two-out traffic to keep the deficit at two runs.

Keuchel (9-1) wasn't quite as elusive in the third. After he got two quick outs to open the inning, the Rays strung together three consecutive baserunners, with Hechavarria and Miller getting back-to-back hits after Wilson Ramos' two-out walk. Ramos scored on Miller's single.

Keuchel surrendered three runs, seven hits and two walks while striking out two in five innings.

"I felt good, so that's the main thing," Keuchel said of his second start following a two-month stint on the disabled list. "Some tough luck, and it seems like they grinded out a lot of at-bats there early. I didn't do myself any good with getting into some hitters counts early."

NOTES: Astros 2B Jose Altuve was named American League Player of the Month for July after hitting .485 (48-for-99) with 10 doubles, one triple, four home runs, 21 RBIs and a 1.251 OPS over 23 games. According to STATS, his average was the sixth highest in a month since 1935 (minimum 80 plate appearances). ... Rays DH Logan Morrison did not participate defensively for a third consecutive game as he continues to deal with a bruised left heel. Morrison last started at first base on July 27 against the New York Yankees. ... Astros 1B Yuli Gurriel was named American League Rookie of the Month for July after leading AL rookies in hits (28), doubles (nine), RBIs (20), slugging percentage (.565) and OPS (.899).