DETROIT — The Tigers had the bases loaded with no outs in the third inning and Trey Sweeney at the plate.
Sweeney hit a soft grounder to first base with the infield in, and the White Sox’ Andrew Vaughn attempted to throw home to get an out and prevent a run from scoring. Catcher Korey Lee, however, was just trying to get an out, so he pointed toward first base. That miscommunication led to a run scoring and no out in the Sox’ 7-2 loss Saturday to the Tigers.
Manager Will Venable said ‘‘everyone’s mindset is to play at home’’ in that scenario. He said that Lee was thinking the right way but that it was too slow a grounder. Lee also came out of his positioning at the plate for the play.
‘‘I think for that play . . . you probably want him to hang tight,’’ Venable said of Lee’s positioning. ‘‘But I think he came out because he was trying to do everything he could to get Vaughn to take the out at first. Just a tough play we weren’t able to execute.’’
Lee, who had three hits (two doubles) in the game, said he was just trying to make sure the Sox got an out.
‘‘I thought it was just a perfectly executed soft-hit baseball,’’ Lee said. ‘‘My read on it was obviously different than [Vaughn’s]. My thought is getting an out in that situation. Nothing to be really too worried about.’’
‘Aggressive in everything we’ve done’
Catcher Matt Thaiss’ dash to the plate in the second inning of the Sox’ 7-4 loss Friday is an example of the attacking mindset Venable wants for his team.
‘‘It’s dependent on, obviously, the score,’’ he said of determining when to send a runner. ‘‘[It’s] dependent on where you’re at in the lineup, dependent on the flow of the game. There’s a lot of different factors. As things have unfolded here, I think that we’ve been aggressive in everything we’ve done. That’s what we’re going to have to do.’’
The first two games of the series against the Tigers have shown the lack of pop in the Sox’ lineup. Center fielder Luis Robert Jr. is a dynamic hitter when he’s going well, but he’s prone to the kind of cold stretches he’s in right now. He has had one multihit game this season and went 0-for-3 with a walk Saturday.
Venable said he doesn’t think Robert is pressing. Robert is batting .143/.219/.179 and has yet to find a rhythm at the plate.
‘‘I think he’s in a good spot,’’ Venable said. ‘‘He continues to work hard. He’s our guy there. He’s in the middle of the order. We’re expecting him to be him and get some hits.’’
Shutdown relievers
Despite right-hander Davis Martin’s poor outing, the relievers held steady, allowing no runs in three innings. Jordan Leasure had three strikeouts in the eighth, fanning Sweeney and Ryan Kreidler on sliders and Kerry Carpenter on a fastball.
‘‘A lot of swing-and-miss,’’ Venable said. ‘‘All those guys coming out of the pen did a nice job. [Leasure], especially, we saw the good life on the fastball at the top of the zone, and his slider was really good, too.’’