DETROIT -- Sunday’s starting pitchers had been remarkably dominant in their careers against their respective opponents, and because of that, Dylan Cease took the mound for the finale knowing it would be a battle.

Cease had never lost at Comerica Park; Tigers starter Eduardo Rodriguez had never lost to the White Sox. When the dust had cleared in the series finale, each of those remained true.

Baseball is funny like that.

While Cease didn’t pitch long enough to get credit for a win, his teammates used a late-game surge to make sure he didn’t take an L, either, before Chicago fell, 6-5, in 10 innings.

“My stuff was good, but I didn’t get in the zone enough,” Cease said. “I fell behind a lot. It wasn’t a good one.

“Falling behind and [issuing] walks, it’s hard to win baseball games that way.”

The defeat capped a frustrating series for the White Sox, who dropped three of four in Detroit. There were no blowouts, no glaring mistakes along the way and no enormous deficiencies; Chicago just lacked a finishing move. Prior to the series, the club had won three consecutive sets and seven of its past 10 games.

On Sunday, the White Sox sent eight hitters to the plate during a pivotal four-run seventh that erased a three-run deficit. They opened the scoring on a two-run double from Eloy Jiménez, who’d been activated from the injured list earlier in the day. Jiménez came around to score the go-ahead run with a head-first slide on a sac fly that Andrew Vaughn stroked to shallow left field.

Jiménez could have been out of action for another week or more after an emergency appendectomy on May 6, but the 26-year-old accelerated his own timetable with a load of hard work and discipline, making it back to the field just in time to make a difference.

Baseball is funny like that.

“It’s good that I’m here,” Jiménez said. “I feel good, and why not?”

Jake Burger narrowly missed adding an insurance run an inning later when center fielder Riley Greene crashed into the outfield wall to rob him of a potential home run. What would have been Burger’s 11th homer of the season would also have fallen on National Hamburger Day -- and would have marked the second time in his career he’d pulled off that fortuitous feat.

More importantly, it would likely have eventually counted as the game-winner.

Instead, Greene flew high to steal the punchline -- and the momentum -- leaving Detroit to send the game to extras after a game-tying RBI groundout in the ninth.

Baseball is funny like that.

Chicago went down in order in its half of the 10th, leaving Reynaldo López to face the Tigers in the bottom of the frame. López coaxed Jonathan Schoop into a flyout that moved automatic runner Spencer Torkelson to third, then intentionally walked Akil Baddoo to bring up Eric Haase, whose sacrifice fly to deep center field was all Detroit needed to clinch the series.

“We did a great job just hanging in there, [especially] the last two games,” manager Pedro Grifol said. “[The guys] did a great job just hanging in there and taking the lead. That’s the way the game is.

“We felt we had the right matchups up there, out there, and we did some good things … and got some big hits, and it just didn’t happen.”

Much like the rest of Chicago’s rotation this series, Cease battled control issues early on. First, he finessed his way through a bases-loaded situation unscathed in the second inning, although it cost him 35 pitches. He wasn’t as successful the next time around, when Baddoo caught him for a two-out grand slam in the third.

Cease didn’t pitch poorly; he just wasn’t the dominant pitcher he’s been lately. After loading the bases and securing two outs to bring up Baddoo, the right-hander even worked him into an 0-2 count before delivering a 97 mph four-seamer high and very tight.

Had Baddoo sat on the pitch, it might have been ball one and the game might have had a very different ending. But it was too close to take, and Detroit’s left fielder had to protect the plate.

His split-second decision gave the Tigers a 4-1 lead.

Baseball is funny like that.

"I was trying to go away and I missed in,” Cease said. “I mean, more times than not, that location's OK, but I’ll just, you know, tip my cap on that one; he got me."