"Well, James Shields did say he wanted to throw some complete games this year for the Tampa Bay Rays. But six before July? And three in a row?

Come on, James, you're making this look way too easy.

"It's kind of surreal right now," Shields said. "I've never done that before in my career. I don't think I ever done that in high school and those were seven-inning games. It's awesome. This is great. This is a good time right now."

The good times continued to roll Friday night at Minute Maid Park, where Shields threw his major league-leading sixth complete game and became just the fifth pitcher in the last five years to throw complete-game victories in three straight starts when he dominated the Astros in a 5-1 win.

Shields struck out nine and allowed just three hits.

"It's ho-hum now," his catcher, Kelly Shoppach, said.

"He rolled through that lineup pretty good, and that's a big-league lineup," third baseman Evan Longoria said. "It shouldn't look that easy, but he threw strikes early in the count and got a lot of first- and second-pitch swings that were a lot of groundball, flyball outs."

Evan Longoria supplied the bulk of the offense with a two-run homer in the third inning and a run-scoring single in the fifth. On any other night that would be the story as the struggling Longoria looked like his old self at the plate.

But it's hard to ignore Shields, who looks nothing like he did in 2010 when he set career highs in losses, ERA, hits, runs and home runs."