DETROIT -- The lights were being turned down at Comerica Park Friday night, the scoreboard still showing the Tigers’ 5-4 loss to the White Sox in 10 innings, as Daz Cameron re-emerged from the Tigers’ dugout and headed back out onto the field. A young fan was waiting behind home plate with the ball Cameron had hit into the right-field seats less than an hour earlier for his first Major League home run.

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Cameron signed another ball to give him in exchange, then they posed together for a picture.

“He was pretty hyped about it,” Cameron said afterwards. “I was glad that I got to talk to him. His name is Alec, and I’m sure he’ll be around the ballpark this summer.”

Alec wasn’t the only one. The remaining crowd was small but enthusiastic coming out of the 49-minute rain delay that halted the bottom of the ninth inning amid a soaking rain. They were soaked, as was Cameron after a diving catch to take a hit away from Leury García in the top of the ninth and keep the game in reach.

The Tigers seemed to feed off the enthusiasm as they waited to face White Sox closer Liam Hendriks. If anything, it seemed to embolden them. Detroit ended up with its sixth defeat in eight meetings with the division-leading White Sox this season, but the more they can play competitive baseball like that, especially their ninth-inning rally, the more they can count on enthusiasm in return from fans.

“They were amped,” Cameron said. “They wanted to be there. For them to stick around, it definitely kept the game pumped, as I would say, for extra innings. We definitely fed off the energy.”

Cameron was pumped, but measured. He had the entire rain delay to think about facing Hendriks, who hadn’t given up a home run or an earned run since April 24 as he returned to the mound with a 4-2 Chicago lead. Once play resumed, Miguel Cabrera’s leadoff single brought the tying run to the plate. Hendriks jammed hometown hero Eric Haase in a popout to first, bringing Cameron up to bat.

Haase had swung at a first-pitch fastball off the plate, but fouled it off. As Cameron walked up to the same at-bat music J.D. Martinez used in Detroit years ago, he wasn’t waiting either.

“I was just looking to be ready to hit,” Cameron said. “That was my initial key up there with how I wanted to approach a pitcher who threw pretty hard. His fastball runs a little bit, so I wanted to make sure that I got on top of it when it came to me swinging the bat. And some good things happened after that.”

Hendriks’ first pitch came in at 97 mph, but right into the strike zone.

“Well, he’s going to supply the power, Hendriks is,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “He’s one of the elite closers in the game, and he’s going to throw plenty hard for you to get the barrel on it, and it’s going to go a long way.”

Cameron sent it out to right field with a 104.2 mph exit velocity, the fifth-hardest-hit ball of his brief big league career.

“I felt it come off the bat. I squared it up good,” Cameron said. “And when I saw it fly, I knew it had a chance to go out.”

The crowd went wild, from the right-field seats where the ball landed to the fans that had gathered behind home plate. Cameron smiled as he rounded the bases. His dad, former All-Star and Gold Glover Mike Cameron, hit 278 home runs in his 17-year Major League career. His first lead-changing homer in the ninth, ironically, came for the White Sox with a walk-off shot off Shigetoshi Hasegawa, three years after his first homer. Daz didn’t have to wait that long.

The younger Cameron had waited long enough just to get another chance. He went 11-for-57 in a late-season stint with Detroit last summer and saw his start to this season delayed by a fractured right wrist. The Tigers’ No. 8 prospect per MLB Pipeline was called up on Thursday after fellow prospect Derek Hill sprained his right shoulder crashing into the center-field wall Wednesday night.

The Tigers couldn’t carry the momentum from there. Yoán Moncada’s 10th-inning sac fly off José Cisnero put the White Sox back in front, and Aaron Bummer retired the top third of Detroit’s lineup after Jake Rogers’ leadoff walk put the winning run on base.

Still, it was a special night for Cameron, complete with the ball. He plans to put it in a case for safe-keeping … eventually.

“I’m definitely sleeping with this,” he said, laughing.