Nothing new for Jonny Gomes getting hit by a pitch to win a game in extra innings. Strangely, it happened to him just last season when he was plunked by Brad Lidge to hand the Washington Nationals a victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

“Been there, done that,” Gomes quipped.

Jonathan Broxton got Gomes this time, hitting him on the first pitch he threw with the bases loaded in the 12th inning and forcing Jemile Weeks home for the winning run in the Oakland Athletics’ 5-4 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday.

Moments earlier, Broxton (0-1) plunked new A’s cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes on the first pitch to load the bases and the closer received a mound visit from pitching coach Dave Eiland.

“I wasn’t very good today, with the walks and everything else. It started out good but I just didn’t have it,” Broxton said. “One was a sinker and one was a four-seam fastball.”

It marked the third time the A’s won on a game-ending hit by pitch in Oakland history and first since Olmedo Saenz on July 20, 2002, against Texas.

“You can hit me four times if we win,” said Gomes, nearly hit earlier on a heater from Kelvin Herrera. “We have to write that down and keep it in the back of our minds because 98 mph could end your season.”

Coco Crisp’s RBI groundout earlier in the 12th tied it at 4-4 after Billy Butler doubled home the go-ahead run in top half of the inning against Andrew Carignan (1-1).

A day after rain shortened the Royals’ 3-0 win after seven-plus innings, fans got their share of baseball in the finale.

Cespedes already has been hit three times, and his teammates are taking notice. While Cespedes didn’t think Broxton intentionally fired at him — “Everybody could see he was wild” — he was glad to hear starter Brandon McCarthy had spoken up on his behalf and that the pitchers would consider retaliation if it comes to that point.

Kansas City heads home for the first time since the start of spring training in mid-February at 3-3, but without the same momentum it would have had with a second winning road series after taking two of three at Los Angeles.

Oakland closer Grant Balfour pitched a scoreless ninth and 10th. He allowed Alcides Escobar’s leadoff single in the 10th and a two-out walk to Jeff Francoeur on four pitches before striking out Mike Moustakas.

The A’s now head out for their first real road trip — a seven-gamer — considering the two matchups with the Mariners in Tokyo two weeks ago counted as Oakland home games. They get Seattle ace Felix Hernandez for the third time Friday at Safeco Field.

Kansas City’s Alex Gordon hit a tying home run off Brian Fuentes in the seventh.

Jose Mijares hit Josh Reddick with a breaking ball in the right shoulder area leading off the eighth, and the ball ricocheted into Reddick’s neck and jaw as he tried to raise his arm to protect himself. He went down for a couple of minutes before leaving the game. Crisp came in to run and Greg Holland relieved Mijares, but the A’s couldn’t capitalize.

Reddick briefly had spotty vision and was put through concussion tests as a precaution but he expects to play Friday.

“That last inning was kind of weird,” Reddick said. “You don’t really see a game ending like that.”

Gomes hit a two-run homer in the fourth to put the A’s ahead and McCarthy in position for his first victory of the season before Fuentes gave it up.

Cespedes doubled, swiped third for his first steal and scored on catcher Brayan Pena’s throwing error to make it 1-0 in the second. Pena threw wildly into left field trying to get Cespedes at third on his steal.

Cespedes hit his first career single in the 11th after his initial five hits went for extra bases. The Cuban rookie wrapped up his first homestand 4 for 16 with two home runs and eight strikeouts.

Gordon also singled in a run in the third for the Royals, who squandered a chance when they left the bases loaded in the fifth.

McCarthy allowed two runs and six hits in six innings. Oakland’s opening-day starter also struck out four and walked two in his third appearance in the team’s first seven games.

The lanky right-hander retired his first seven batters and looked more in sync than he did in going only five innings his last time out, a 7-3 loss to Seattle in the A’s home opener last Friday.

— Associated Press —

Danny Duffy thinks he’s ready to extend his success at Oakland Coliseum to the rest of the American League.

Duffy pitched six sharp innings and the Kansas City Royals beat the Oakland Athletics 3-0 in a rain-shortened game on Tuesday night.

“He commanded the ball well, changed speeds well and had a good breaking ball,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “He got out of his delivery a time or two but had the ability to reel it back in and pitched very, very well.”

Duffy (1-0) allowed one hit, struck out eight and walked four, continuing his dominance of the A’s in front of an estimated 150 friends and family members. The 23-year-old left-hander improved to 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA in three career starts at this aging stadium five hours north of his hometown in Southern California.

“I don’t know, I don’t really think it’s anything in this year,” said Duffy, who has five career wins. “I feel like it’s going to be pretty consistent everywhere we go, so I’m pretty excited.”

Mike Moustakas hit an RBI double in the fourth and Mitch Maier added a solo homer in the seventh for Kansas City, which snapped a 25-inning scoreless streak in Oakland.

The start of the game was delayed 43 minutes by rain, and a steady drizzle continued throughout the night.

A second delay was called after Eric Hosmer struck out in the top of the eighth during a downpour. The bat slipped out of Hosmer’s hands and landed just above the steps in the Royals dugout, prompting umpires to call for the tarp. The game was officially called at 11:07 p.m. local time.

Aaron Crow pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for his first career save.

Cliff Pennington doubled with one out in third for Oakland’s only hit, and he was picked off. Duffy pitched with runners on base in two other innings and got out of trouble each time with some help from Kansas City’s defense.

Both teams were pressing to get the game in regardless of the weather, since this is Kansas City’s lone trip to Northern California this season and rain is predicted for the Bay Area through the rest of the week as well.

Kansas City pushed across two runs in the fourth against Graham Godfrey. Billy Butler hit a leadoff double, took third on Jeff Francoeur’s bloop single and scored when Moustakas hit a long fly ball that glanced off the glove of center fielder Yoenis Cespedes. The Cuban rookie had turned and was running at a full sprint toward the wall when the ball hit the palm of his glove and bounced off.

“That pitch to Butler, I don’t know how he got to it, and to keep it fair, well, he’s a good hitter,” Godfrey said. “I thought everything went pretty well except for a couple of pitches.”

Francoeur scored on Humberto Quintero’s sacrifice fly.

Duffy made it hold up, with a little help from the Royals’ defense.

First baseman Hosmer made a sliding grab of Jemile Weeks’ foul ball in the first, then Lorenzo Cain chased down Daric Barton’s deep fly ball to center to start an 8-4-3 double play in the second.

“I was so hyped after that,” Duffy said. “It was just a great night overall. Our defense came to play.”

Even when he had control problems in the fifth, walking a pair of batters, Duffy worked out of trouble by striking out Pennington to end the threat.

Duffy earned his first major league victory here on June 4 when he held the A’s to two runs over six innings, then won in Oakland again on Sept. 6.

“I walked four guys today, and that’s something I’m going to have to figure out a little bit more,” Duffy said. “I was a little bit out of my rhythm today.”

Maier, who entered the game as an injury replacement for Cain, homered off Jerry Blevins in the seventh. Cain left the game with a strained left groin following his double play in the second.

Godfrey (0-1) allowed six hits in six innings.

— Associated Press —