I Should Be Happy. But—

A 4-2, series-clinching win for the White Sox over the Rangers should have me doing cartwheels. But a couple of things are keeping me earthbound. Not the relief pitching, though. Last night, Jordan Hicks; Grant Taylor; and Bryan Hudson hurled four perfect innings in relief of starter Anthony Kay. Taylor, especially, was in command, striking out five of the six Texas batters he faced. You can’t knock that. Or the six hits and four RBIs that Chase Meidroth and Andrew Benintendi provided, along with the three runs Braden Montgomery scored. But just seven singles on the night, provided by the above three? Colson Montgomery can’t seem to crack the .230 mark. Not good. Or Miguel Vargas .250. Ditto. I won’t even talk about the catching situation, other than to wonder why Korey Lee has spent most of the last two seasons in Charlotte. And the starting pitching is Wegovy-thin. Anthony Kay likes pitching in traffic so much, they should save him for the tenth. Talk about channeling your inner Erick Fedde. How Kay limited the Rangers to two runs is a mystery. Ordinarily, you give up five hits and two walks in five innings, you’re asking for trouble, more so if you hit a batter, which Kay did. The lefty escaped a bases-loaded, nobody-out jam in the fourth only through a great play on a groundball to Miguel Vargas, who turned a 5-3 double play to limit the damage to one run. You can’t argue with success, I guess. But I insist on my right to nitpick.