CHICAGO -- The Tigers started out fast, but they quickly sputtered out as the White Sox defeated Detroit, 7-5, in Game 1 of Wednesday’s split doubleheader at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Things began well for Detroit, as they benefited from an erratic Dylan Cease, who was making his Major League debut for the White Sox. The Tigers scored a pair of runs on Harold Castro’s RBI single, and they looked to be in a position to make Cease’s first start in the big leagues a short one.

• Box score

But that wouldn’t be the case. After walking three batters in the first inning, Cease silenced the Tigers over the next three, allowing just three hits and striking out six.

“We didn’t do too much, offensively, in the first game,” Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We scored early, but after that they shut us down.”

Jeimer Candelario, who homered in the fifth, would be the last runner to reach base until Niko Goodrum, who walked, stole second on a wild pitch and scored on Gordon Beckham’s ground-rule double in the ninth. Christin Stewart added another double to bring home Beckham, but the rally was halted after that.

“Fortunately for us, we battled back at the end, but we got behind,” Gardenhire said. “The bullpen had a little bit of an issue.”

Daniel Norris looked healthy after exiting his last start with cramps in his surgically repaired left groin, but he did not have the results he or his team was looking for.

Norris allowed six of the first 10 White Sox hitters to reach base via a walk or a hit, leading to two runs and forcing the Tigers to play catchup after grabbing the early lead. But he found a better rhythm as the game progressed.

“I felt better than probably the line [says], but when you put guys on base, that’s what happens,” Norris said. “Felt pretty good about how I was throwing the ball.”

While the Tigers’ left-hander was not his sharpest, he wasn’t hit particularly hard either. The Sox put nine hard-hit balls in play against Norris -- that is, balls with exit velocities of 95 mph or more -- and just four of them went for hits. But he was unable to finish the outing on a high, as he walked both Jon Jay and Eloy Jiménez to lead off the sixth inning and force him from the game.

Both sixth-inning walks came around to score as Norris finished the game allowing six earned runs. He has now allowed six runs in two of his past three outings.

“Literally, a different conversation if I don’t walk those last two guys,” Norris said. “Felt good in the fifth inning. Just got a little tired, I guess. Just gotta finish strong.”

“They just got some big hits. They rolled some through. They put some good swings on with our shift; we got beat a couple of times on our shift. That’s the way it went,” Gardenhire said. “We just gotta make some better pitches in those situations.”

Worth noting

Center fielder JaCoby Jones left the Game 1 of the doubleheader in the fifth inning after experiencing back spasms, and he did not start Game 2.

“We’ll see how he does during the night,” Gardenhire said. “He got an MRI to make sure everything is OK, but definitely back spasms, and we’ll see how it goes throughout this game.”