Wild and reckless White Sox blanked by O’s, lose for 109th time

BALTIMORE — On their way to losing for the 109th time this season en route to what likely will be the most defeats in MLB history, the White Sox seemingly have demonstrated a hundred ways to get beat.

They lost to the Orioles 9-0 on Tuesday at Camden Yards. They were shut out for the 16th time, and the game was 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 allowing one run in six innings Thursday against the Rangers, Nastrini threw four pitches to the backstop — two of them in 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 with one run scored despite walking the bases full. But third baseman Miguel Vargas crashed into left fielder Andrew Benintendi on a pop-up to short left field by former Sox Eloy Jimenez, allowing three runs to score.

Benintendi had the easier play and called for the ball, but Vargas slammed his forehead into Benintendi’s shoulder as the ball deflected to the ground.

‘‘That’s Benintendi’s ball,’’ interim manager Grady Sizemore said.

Vargas, whom Sizemore said suffered a scratch on his right eyeball, lay on the ground for several moments and was checked by training staff. He stayed in the game but left before the end of the inning. He is being further evaluated.

‘‘He was tracking it the whole time,’’ Benintendi said. ‘‘Maybe he didn’t hear me. It’s unfortunate.’’

There are 22 games left, and the last one can’t come soon enough for the Sox (31-109), who lost their 12th game in row. They’ll have to finish 12-10 to avoid tying the 1962 Mets’ all-time record of 120 losses. It’s a record the Sox don’t want to hear about but will as their national story of ineptitude continues.

‘‘We get asked about it a lot, but we can’t take the losses back,’’ 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 involved in two blowouts in Baltimore, though, sliding closer to a record most players didn’t know existed when the season began.

‘‘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 the Sox lost 13-3, Nastrini (7.79 ERA) gave them no chance to win.

‘‘It’s pretty simple: I was bad,’’ he said.

Four of the first five Orioles had hits: doubles by Gunnar Henderson, Ryan O’Hearn and Anthony Santander and a 110 mph single by Colton Cowser. Nastrini, who threw only 30 of his 72 pitches for strikes, walked five in the second and finally was pulled when Cedric Mullins walked after 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, almost all bad things showed up, including Lee getting picked off first base by Orioles left-hander Cade Povich (2-7, 5.76 ERA), who breezed through 7⅓ innings without allowing a run and struck out 10.

The Sox are 4-38 since the All-Star break for a .095 winning percentage. They’ve lost 16 of their last 17 games and will try to avoid being swept in a series for the 23rd time Wednesday.

Sizemore, now 3-20 since taking over for fired manager Pedro Grifol, was ejected from the dugout by plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt with Benintendi batting in the sixth. It was his first ejection as a player or manager.

Moments later, Benintendi was called out on strikes and was ejected for the third time in his career.

‘‘There were balls that were being called strikes and strikes being called balls for both teams,’’ Sizemore said.