Call Them The Chicago Delight Sox

If the AL Central is like an apartment building, then the Chicago White Sox spent the last few years as a shut-in neighbor with some smelly, unidentifiable substance leaking out from under their front door. It was best to stay as far away as possible. But after the first few months of the 2026 season, the windows have been cracked and the rooms aired out. If you come knock on the White Sox's door with an open mind, there's a good chance they'll welcome you in and give you an enjoyable evening in their company. And it won't smell nearly at all.

The latest collision of "White Sox" and "happiness" came Tuesday night on the South Side, with the Atlanta Braves in town for the start of a three-game series. The Braves' garish, tasteless 45-21 record dwarfed the Sox's humble, earthy 34-31 mark, and Chicago was missing its thundering rookie slugger Munetaka Murakami to injury, so it wouldn't be fair to expect too much out of this meeting. But after Atlanta got out to an early 4-0 lead, the pitching tightened up and the Sox got the hits they needed to send it into extras. There was a two-run Miguel Vargas dong in the third, then a single/HBP/single combo in the fourth, and finally walk/single/single in the seventh. (This was a retro-themed local broadcast for the Sox, by the way, with old-fashioned graphics and Bob Costas of all people on the play-by-play call.)

Atlanta got their run on their top of the 10th, and Raisel Iglesias, who entered this game with a 0.87 ERA, picked up the first two outs in the bottom half. But then Braden Montgomery, a right fielder making his MLB debut at a position where nine __ different starters have featured for Chicago this season, stepped up to the plate, hoping to add to the RBI hit he'd earned in the fourth. The 23-year-old looked at a 90-mph meatball down the middle, and with the count 0-1, Iglesias tried to sneak that same thing by him again. Big mistake. Montgomery flicked the pitch into the left field corner, and on a warm Midwestern night its flight extended beyond the fence for the game-winning home run. That hit only goes yard in two out of 30 ballparks, but this is the only place that matters.