DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers loaded the bases with no outs in the third inning.

Already trailing by four runs, the Chicago White Sox brought the infield in with the hope of avoiding a deeper hole.

Trey Sweeney hit a slow chopper toward Andrew Vaughn. The first baseman charged, fielded the ball and threw home, looking to get a force. But catcher Korey Lee was standing in front of the plate, giving the directions to throw to first. Colt Keith scored on the fielder’s choice.

“It was just a perfectly executed soft-hit baseball,” Lee said. “My read on it was obviously different than Vaughny’s. We talked about it. My thought is getting an out in that situation, trying to stack up as many outs as we can and they took advantage of it, they were running hard and just miscommunication.

“Nothing to be really too worried about.”

It was one of those afternoons for the Sox, who suffered their fourth straight defeat Saturday with a 7-2 loss in front of 26,098 at Comerica Park.

From being caught in between on the Sweeney grounder in the third inning to Brooks Baldwin getting thrown out by catcher Jake Rogers while trying to make his way back to first with the team down by six runs in the fourth, it was a bumpy day for the Sox.

“Really in every phase, right?” manager Will Venable said of the team’s lack of crispness. “Starting with (starter) Davis (Martin), where they obviously came out aggressive and we just didn’t make the adjustment. And then when we did, they did a good job countering. And then offensively, some early opportunities there in the first inning and then later in the game, also weren’t able to capitalize on.”

The Tigers had a successful strategy of swinging early in their at-bats against Martin, who allowed seven runs on nine hits with two walks and two strikeouts in five innings.

“You saw they were jumping on offspeed early and often,” Martin said. “As we went on, we started switching it to more of a fastball-heavy approach, moving the sinker around, following it up with four seams, doubling it up with four seams. So, just seeing that earlier, the better.

“Instead of doing that in the third and fourth innings, doing that in the first two or so. Just reading swings, reading those tendencies early in the game is another part of development.”

Justyn-Henry Malloy doubled on Martin’s first pitch and later scored during a two-run first inning. Kerry Carpenter hit a two-run home run on a first-pitch curveball from Martin in the second to give the Tigers a 4-1 lead.

Martin surrendered another home run one inning later, this time on a 2-2 changeup to Spencer Torkelson. A walk, hit by pitch and single followed, setting the stage for Sweeney’s grounder to Vaughn.

“We’re in right there and so everyone’s mindset is kind of to play at home,” Venable said. “Obviously, it was just slow developing and there probably wasn’t a play there. Korey was doing his best to kind of get Vaughn to take the out at first. He’s thinking the right thing, it was just too slow a ground ball.”

The Sox trailed 7-1 in the fourth when Baldwin singled with two outs to place runners on first and second. With Lee batting, Rogers caught Reese Olson’s high-and-outside sinker and fired to first to throw out Baldwin.

“That play can’t happen,” Venable said. “He knows that. We’re trying to mount a comeback there and he just was a step too far off and wasn’t able to redirect in time. Good learning experience for him, but we have to be better than that.”

The Sox did have a couple of standout defensive plays, such as Andrew Benintendi’s leaping catch in left field in the first inning and a strong relay from center fielder Luis Robert Jr. to second baseman Lenyn Sosa to cut down a runner at third to end the fifth. But those sequences were overshadowed by the miscues.

Inconsistencies continued offensively. The Sox had eight hits, including three by Lee, but were just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

They had runners on second and third with one out in the first but didn’t get them home. The Sox loaded the bases with no outs in the fifth but settled for one run — and that came on a double play.

“There’s been some balls hit hard, but we have to find a way to push some runs across and I think in those situations, you find a way to capitalize whether that’s just being more selective on pitches or just taking some pitches,” Venable said. “Whatever it is, we’ve got to find a way to get some hits in those situations and push some runs across.”

The Sox (2-6) have been outscored 28-10 during the four-game skid.

“Tomorrow’s a new day,” Venable said. “We get to salvage the series and go out and play a good game and that’s where our focus will be.”