SAN DIEGO -- All things considered, Astros right-hander Spencer Arrighetti was able to walk away from the Petco Park mound on Monday night feeling pretty good about the way he dug in and battled against a Padres lineup that¡¯s among baseball¡¯s best.

The Padres made sure nothing came easy for the rookie, who needed 102 pitches -- his second-highest pitch total this year -- to complete five cumbersome innings. Arrighetti gave up eight hits and two runs, but that was enough for San Diego to send the Astros to a 3-1 loss, snapping Houston¡¯s three-game winning streak.

The Astros are four games ahead of the second-place Mariners atop the American League West with 12 games remaining.

¡°I have to just keep giving the team a chance,¡± Arrighetti said. ¡°I feel like that¡¯s what I made the last couple of months about, and it¡¯s felt a lot better. I can walk away from it knowing that I did everything I could for the team and not for me, and I feel like that¡¯s been the best development this year is shifting my mind a little bit towards trying to win games. I feel like I want to continue to do that.¡±

Arrighetti gave up back-to-back doubles to Jurickson Profar and Manny Machado with two outs in the first inning, and Jackson Merrill led off the fourth with a home run to center field to put the Padres ahead, 2-0. But nothing came easy on this day.

Arrighetti had only 11 whiffs from among 58 Padres swings, with San Diego fouling off 29 pitches. He threw a career-high 42 pitches with two strikes.

¡°That¡¯s battling,¡± he said. ¡°That¡¯s awesome. They executed their plan, and I feel like I stayed with mine and I feel like I kind of grinded through those at-bats, even when they got long. It¡¯s a tough one, for sure. It¡¯s a really good team.¡±

Arrighetti pitched around a hit and a walk in the second inning and then got a strikeout-throw out double play to end the third. He didn¡¯t allow a run after three consecutive singles in the fifth, thanks to left fielder Jason Heyward throwing out Luis Arraez at the plate.

¡°If he does that and he keeps in the game, we¡¯re going to win some games,¡± Astros manager Joe Espada said. ¡°That¡¯s the stuff that we want to see out of our young guys. Even when you don¡¯t have your great stuff, you figure out a way to get people out. He did that.¡±

Arrighetti¡¯s second strikeout victim was Arraez, who swung through a 3-2 curveball for his first strikeout after 141 plate appearances without one. According to Elias, it was the longest streak since Juan Pierre reached 147 during the 2004 season.

¡°I respect that guy a lot and what he does is absolutely crazy in the game that we play today,¡± Arrighetti said. ¡°It meant a lot to me, for sure. Hats off to him, too. He got me on the same pitch [on a fifth-inning single]. It¡¯s not like I can just walk away feeling great. It wasn¡¯t an 0-for-3. He still got me, too. It was a really cool moment for me, for sure. I was very aware of it.¡±

Arrighetti kept trying to go up and away to Arraez -- who's in line for his third straight batting title -- before sending a curveball in the dirt. The at-bat took nine pitches and had four foul balls.

¡°When guys don¡¯t and miss a lot anyways, my job is kind of to give different looks,¡±Arrighetti said. ¡°And, hopefully, one of them looks similar to the other and they miss. I feel like I was pretty good with what my attack plan was with him.¡±

The Astros scored a run in the eighth against reliever Tanner Scott to get within a run. Jose Altuve led off the inning with a double and scored on a Yordan Alvarez single, but the Astros stranded the potential tying run at third base. Profar finished his 4-for-4 day with a homer off Tayler Scott in the eighth.

¡°We got some people on base, and we couldn't get a big hit,¡± Espada said. ¡°Spencer left some pitches out over the plate early in the game, and then he settled down and gave us a strong five innings. But they pitched us tough tonight. They did.¡±