HOUSTON -- Slowly but surely, Astros rookie pitcher Spencer Arrighetti is figuring this thing out. It hasn¡¯t been easy, as evidenced by three unsightly starts in which he gave up seven runs earlier this year. But then there¡¯s also what happened Sunday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.

Arrighetti pitched confidently and dominated in a 1-0 loss to the Rays, striking out a career-high 12 batters over six innings in the 20th start of his career. It was also the most strikeouts in a game by an Astros pitcher this year. Houston has lost six consecutive games started by Arrighetti, but he¡¯s posted a 3.41 ERA in his last five starts while the Astros have scored five total runs in those five games.

¡°Spence was phenomenal,¡± Astros manager Joe Espada said. ¡°He couldn¡¯t do a better job. He got 12 punchies, pounded the zone. He competed his [butt] off. That was a great performance.¡±

Arrighetti relied heavily on four pitches -- fastball, curveball, changeup and cutter -- and got 20 whiffs, including six on the curveball. He threw 100 pitches, which is one off his career high of 101 on July 7. He struck out two batters in each of the first four innings and then had three strikeouts in the fifth to get him to 11. His 12th strikeout came on a curveball to Josh Lowe in the sixth.

The Astros struck out 15 batters, giving them 10 consecutive games with double-digit strikeouts, which not only ties a club record, but ties the second-longest streak in Major League history. Cleveland had 13 games of at least 10 strikeouts from Aug. 3-17, 2017.

¡°Arrighetti did not make it easy, and their bullpen did not make it easy,¡± Rays manager Kevin Cash said. ¡°They were kind of toe-to-toe with big pitches.¡±

Arrighetti said the spin on his pitches helped make him effective Sunday, along with getting ahead of hitters and throwing up in the zone.

¡°Generally, I executed pretty well across the board,¡± Arrighetti said. ¡°I feel like I kind of grooved one to a couple of hitters and either got away with it or there were a couple of doubles I could have controlled a little bit better with better pitch selection or executing better.¡±

Arrighetti¡¯s stellar outing came on the heels of what he said was his worst pregame bullpen of the season. As an avid golfer, he compares pregame bullpens to hitting on the range before playing a round. It means nothing once you tee off and hit one down the middle.

¡°It¡¯s just kind of an indication of what you might be working with and a lot of times you can just choose to ignore it or you can get a little too high on it if it¡¯s too good,¡± Arrighetti said. "A bad bullpen before the game is kind of a good thing sometimes. You get all the bad ones out there and go deal in the game.¡±

Arrighetti said he had a ¡°mini identity crisis¡± at one point this year, trying to figure out who he was as a pitcher. On surviving the ups and downs of the season, Arrighetti said fellow starter Hunter Brown gave him a piece of paper earlier this year that had a quote Arrighetti made while he was pitching in the Minor Leagues. He discussed getting knocked around and taking more from the work he did between starts than the bad outings.

¡°I feel like I kind of committed to that for the last month or so, month-and-a-half, and these games have generally been a lot better,¡± Arrighetti said. ¡°When I talk about finding the middle [ground] more often, I feel like I need to [strive for] the area above it some days. And I think a lot of that just has to do with paying a lot of attention and being really intentional with my throwing program, my outings in between, gauging my intensity a little bit better and making it more about executing rather than just throwing nasty stuff for the sake of throwing it. I think it¡¯s working."

Arrighetti has even already picked the brain of veteran pitcher Yusei Kikuchi, who was traded to the Astros last week and struck out 11 batters in his Houston debut. He was curious about how the Japanese develop pitchers differently and Kikuchi attacked hitters.

¡°Watching him dominate the other night, it gives the starters confidence,¡± Arrighetti said. ¡°We try to balance out each other when guys are struggling.¡±