CHICAGO -- In a perfect world, Spencer Arrighetti would have settled into the Triple-A rotation to start the season and slowly and steadily built his case to make it to Houston at some point this summer. The Astros, with their starting rotation riddled with injuries, didn’t have that luxury.

Arrighetti, the Astros’ No. 3-ranked prospect by MLB Pipeline, was called up to the big leagues after only two Triple-A starts to fill a hole created when five starters were on the injured list. Just as the Astros got Justin Verlander back off the IL, Cristian Javier went on, and Arrighetti was called up again.

The on-the-job training in the Major Leagues could pay off for Arrighetti in the long run, but it was hard to see those positives after he allowed four runs -- all in the first inning -- and seven hits in 3 2/3 innings in Wednesday’s 4-3 loss to the Cubs at Wrigley Field. Houston has dropped four in a row and seven of its past eight games.

“His stuff plays,” manager Joe Espada said. “His demeanor on the mound is solid. He competes. He knows how to navigate lineups. I think he’s heading in the right direction.”

Through three big league starts, Arrighetti has a 10.97 ERA and 2.34 WHIP in 10 2/3 innings. He’s allowed 13 earned runs and 18 hits, but also has 15 strikeouts and seven walks. The biggest takeaway Arrighetti has so far is that mistakes get punished more often at the big league level.

“You don’t want to make mistakes on this stage, but tonight the mistake was expensive,” he said. “I just need to execute a little bit better when the situation calls for it. I made some good pitches. I didn’t make any great pitches and I think I needed to make a couple in there.”

The Astros, who fell behind, 5-0, in the first inning Tuesday en route to a 7-2 loss, watched the Cubs score four times in the first Wednesday. An infield hit, a single off first baseman Jon Singleton’s glove and a two-out walk all contributed to the damage, but Dansby Swanson’s three-run homer on a 2-2 cutter -- the first hit allowed by Arrighetti -- put the Astros in a hole from which they couldn’t recover.

“I threw a couple of good ones of the same pitch type right before that and felt good about it,” Arrighetti said. “I wanted to go down and away and just got a little bit excited and came out early and when it backs up, it backs up. That’s it.”

Arrighetti threw his fastball 64 percent (58 of his career-high 90 pitches) and generated 12 whiffs, while throwing only 18 curveballs, nine cutters, four sweepers and one changeup. He threw 24 percent cutters in his previous outing April 15 against the Rangers.

“Obviously, I like the pitch a lot and I like throwing it when I get the opportunity to, but it wasn’t in the cards tonight,” he said. “I think if I had a little bit better of a sweeper, I would have been able to handle some of their righties a little bit better. I think I got a little one-dimensional with the fastball. I got happy about getting whiffs on them and wanted to throw some more of them. I felt it was my pitch to compete with tonight.”

Arrighetti settled in nicely after the first inning, sending down nine of 12 batters after the Swanson homer. He left with the bases loaded and two outs in the fourth inning before Shawn Dubin cleaned up the mess and retired all seven batters he faced.

Espada said Arrighetti is growing up with every outing.

“That’s important, especially when we’re trying to grind and fight through things and he’s able to sustain some of that adversity through tough innings,” he said. “He’s just what we needed through stretches like this, somebody that can come and compete. He’s got a pretty bright future.”

Arrighetti might return to Sugar Land soon with Framer Valdez likely coming off the IL to start this weekend in Mexico City. Whenever Arrighetti returns, he’ll be ready to take the call and compete once again.

“I feel like I was able to compete after getting hit around a little bit,” he said “I made one really bad pitch to a really good hitter and I wasn’t going to let that be the reason why I rolled over.”