Oakland Wins Opener, 2-1

BOSTON — Dave Henderson beat his former team with a run-scoring single in the eighth inning today, leading the Oakland Athletics past the Boston Red Sox 2-1 in the first game of the American League playoffs.

Henderson, whose homer rescued Boston from elimination by the Angels in the 1986 playoffs, hit a single to right off loser Bruce Hurst to drive in Carney Lansford, who had hit Hurst’s first pitch of the inning for a double. Jose Canseco had given Oakland a 1-0 lead in the fourth with a home run over the wall in left, but Wade Boggs hit a sacrifice fly in the seventh to tie the score.