Rozner: White Sox will be thinking big in 2021

Sometimes it plays to form just the way you figured.

OK, almost never.

But once in a while a baseball series falls just as it should, and that's what happened to the White Sox in Oakland.

A young team lost a series it certainly could have won. In fact, player for player the Sox were the better team.

The concerns going in, however, all showed up during the final two games, both of which the Sox lost.

This was a team that pounded bad pitching over the short regular season, but relied heavily on the long ball. That's certainly popular in today's game and the way most teams go about trying to win in October, but when you run into good starters or dominant relievers, that can come to a screeching halt.

The Sox scored 7 of their 11 runs in the series off home runs, including all 4 runs in the only game they won, but they went 4-for-28 with runners in scoring position and left 28 men on base in 3 games.

In the final 2 games, both 2-run defeats, they were 3-for-22 with runners in scoring position and left 22 men on base.

As a team, the approach needed to change in the postseason, taking basehits and going the other way with men on, building on leads by taking what the pitchers were giving them.

Jose Abreu almost always has the right approach, keyholing on the first pitch and looking for a fastball to drive out of the park, but then he shortens up and looks to find some open grass and RBIs wherever he can get them if the count is not in his favor.

It's just a smart way to play the game.

Beyond the offense and Lucas Giolito, you wondered if the Sox would have enough pitching and bullpen arms to get them through games when the first man on the mound didn't go deep.

Three intense playoff games in a row is going to tax the arms and minds of pitchers who aren't used to it, though that was probably less of a factor than the way in which manager Rick Renteria went about it in Game 3.

It's easy to second guess him and you might be right, but if Garrett Crochet doesn't leave with an injury in Game 3, it might not have played out the way it did for the Sox.

The series loss exposed their deficiencies as a roster and individually, but also on display was a really exciting team just getting started, one that didn't expect to make the playoffs in 2020 and got the bonus of playing meaningful games that will benefit them in 2021, when they will be favored to win the Central Division.

"As I said since the start of (last) offseason, we really had no idea how long this sort of intermediate stage of transition was going to take," GM Rick Hahn said before the postseason. "Had we ... come in around .500 at the end of the season, I don't think that would have been a great shock.

"But the fact of the matter is that enough of the players have taken that step forward. The veterans have acclimated themselves well and we've been able to achieve at a higher level, perhaps a little more quickly than we anticipated."

The offseason, whatever shape that takes, will be an opportunity to fill some holes and begin next year with a healthy pitching staff, starting with Michael Kopech, whose arm was dearly missed against Oakland.

They'll need to re-sign free agents Alex Colome and James McCann and probably add some help in the rotation and bullpen. They'll want insurance against lingering injuries and those that will inevitably occur.

The offense is a monster that will improve with experience and should scare the American League in the years to come, with the reminder that in the playoffs - in a normal postseason - you generally face 1s, 2s and closers, and the hitters' thought process will need to get better.

But the future is bright, the rebuild that was so often mocked - even during this season - has the Sox on the verge of competing for championships.

Maybe you didn't understand the plan or maybe you just didn't like it, but the Sox are ahead of schedule in Year 4.

All you have to do now is sit back and enjoy it.