HOUSTON -- There have been a few rough starts scattered across the three-year career of White Sox right-hander Dylan Cease, much like his performance during a 10-2 loss to Houston on Thursday night at Minute Maid Park.

But the 25-year-old has shown to be resilient, meaning he won’t allow the struggles during Game 1 of this four-game set to stick with him too long.

"That's the name of the game. Obviously, we're not going to be perfect,” Cease said. “We're going to have bad ones. I'm going to feel bad for tonight, and then tomorrow I'm going to get back after it."

“He’s been so outstanding this was really the first game where his secondary pitches weren’t consistent,” said White Sox manager Tony La Russa of Cease. “Usually it’s been nails. Today it wasn’t there and he fell behind, especially in the fourth inning.”

Cease threw 37 pitches over the first three innings and looked in control despite trailing by a 3-0 margin. Those three runs scored in the first three hitters, when Jose Altuve reached on an infield single, Chas McCormick reached on a throwing error committed by third baseman Yoán Moncada off a would-be double-play grounder and Michael Brantley launched a three-run home run.

Then fortunes truly went sideways in a hurry during the fourth.

In that inning alone, Cease threw 37 pitches without getting through the frame. He yielded seven runs (six earned) over 3 1/3 innings, including four in the fourth, while striking out four and walking two.

“I wasn't getting count leverage, and the off-speed wasn't there like it usually is. It was one of those games, my stuff felt decent, but I wasn't able to utilize it,” said Cease, who had seven swings and misses overall and topped out at 98.4 mph with his fastball, per Statcast. “They’re obviously a good offensive team, and if you put them in hitter's counts, it's going to be tough. I was just not quite getting down the mound like I needed to. That's what I would attribute it to, mostly."

Houston starter José Urquidy dominated the White Sox for much of seven innings, allowing a pair of two-out, run-scoring singles to Adam Engel and José Abreu in the sixth, but not much more. Cease entered this contest with two runs allowed over his last 12 innings over two winning starts.

Both of those outings were against the Tigers, with Cease holding a 3-0 record and 0.95 ERA vs. Detroit this season. He now has a 2-3 record with a 5.12 ERA over his 11 other starts.

After playing such spirited baseball in taking two of three from the Rays at home to start the week, this game simply was a bit of a clunker for the AL Central-leading White Sox (43-26), who hold a 3 1/2-game lead over the victorious Indians and are two up in the loss column. But much of the reason for Thursday’s tough night goes to the equally talented Astros (40-28).

“They’ve been together several years now, they’ve been tested, played a lot of winning baseball against good pitchers,” said La Russa of the Astros. “Have solid approaches.

“Right now they’re at the top in a lot of things you measure as far as putting the ball in play and not chasing. They have a bunch of guys who are professional hitters and getting Brantley back, it’s a deep lineup even without [Alex] Bregman.”