ANAHEIM — It’s always sweet when a plan comes together. The A’s “opener” method, the same strategy they might utilize in next week’s wild-card game at New York, has failed at times, but it worked out to perfection in its final test run of the regular season.
Liam Hendriks opened up the game with a scoreless first inning for the A’s and was followed by by four solid innings of work from regular starter Trevor Cahill, the blueprint for how they envision these type of games working out, in Saturday’s 5-2 victory over the Angels. It was the A’s 97th victory, their highest win total over a season since finishing 103-59 in 2002.