BALTIMORE — On their way to losing for the 109th time this season en route to becoming the worst team of all time, the White Sox have seemingly demonstrated a hundred ways to get beat.
They lost to the Orioles 9-0 Tuesday at Camden Yards, shut out for the 16th time and having it decided early and in reckless, uncontrolled fashion. Rookie right-hander Nick Nastrini walked six batters, needing 72 pitches to record five outs, and exited trailing 7-0 in the second inning. In his first start since tossing six innings of one-run ball against the Rangers Thursday, Nastrini threw four pitches to the backstop, two of them in the the dirt and two over catcher Korey Lee’s head.
As rough as things were for Nastrini, he should have been out of the second inning with one run scored despite walking the bases full, but third baseman Miguel Vargas crashed into left fielder Andrew Benintendi on former Sox Eloy Jimenez’ pop-up in short left near the line, allowing three runs to score.
Benintendi had the easier play and appeared to call for the ball but Vargas slammed his forehead into Benintendi’s shoulder as the ball deflected to the ground.
Vargas lay on the ground for several moments and was checked by training staff but stayed in the game, then left before the end of the inning with a bruise around his right eye.
There are 22 games to play, and the last one can’t come soon enough for the Sox, who were on their way to losing for the 12th straight time while falling to 31-109. They’ll have to finish 12-10 to avoid tying the 1962 Mets’ record 120 losses.
It’s a record the Sox don’t want to hear about but will as their national story for ineptitude continues to be heard.
“We get asked about it a lot but we can’t take the losses back, there’s nothing we can do,” infielder Nicky Lopez said. “We don’t like the losing. But we’ve been in a lot of close games. And it’s been tough.”
They’ve been in two blowouts in Baltimore, though, sliding closer to a record most players didn’t know existed when the season began.
But there’s no avoiding it now.
“To be honest, I heard about the Mets from a reporter,” Lopez said. “We can’t worry about that. I know it’s obviously there. But we just have to worry about winning today’s game. And keep going.”
A day after seeing his team lose 13-3 to the Orioles (81-59), Nastrini (7.79 ERA) gave the Sox no chance to win. Four of the first five Orioles batters had hits — doubles by Gunnar Henderson, Ryan O’Hearn and and Anthony Santander and a 110-mph single by Colton Cowser.
Nastrini, who threw only 30 of 72 pitches for strikes, walked five in the second and was finally pulled by interim manager Grady Sizemore when Cedric Mullins walked following Vargas’ error.
“Some days the pitching shows up and the hitters don’t show,” Lopez said. “When you’re constantly losing not everything is adding up. We need things to add up to win ballgames.”
In this one, mostly bad things showed, including Lee getting picked off first base by O’s lefty Cade Povich (2-7, 5.76 ERA), who breezed through 7 1/3 innings without allowing a run on five hits and striking out 10.
The Sox are 2-29 in their last 31 series and are 4-38 in second half for a .095 win percentage, which would be the lowest in history. They’ve lost 16 of their last 17 games and will attempt to avoid being swept for the 21st time when they finish the series Wednesday.
On this night, the frustration boiled over when Sizemore, now 3-20 since taking over for fired manager Pedro Grifol, was ejected from the dugout by plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt in the sixth inning with Benintendi batting.
Thrown out for the first time as manager, Sizemore jawed face to face with Wendlestedt as third base coach Justin Jirschele intervened. Moments later, Benintendi was called out on strikes, had words with the umpire and was ejected for the third time in his career.