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 —

Tommy Milone experienced a most unusual wait to make his debut with the Oakland Athletics.

As in one trip to Japan and back before he eventually started Game 5 of the season.

Milone allowed three hits over a career-high eight innings in an impressive outing his first time out with his new team, and the A’s beat the Kansas City Royals 1-0 on Monday night.

“Obviously, especially when you get named the No. 3 starter you want to go out and pitch,” Milone said. “The scheduling was a little different. It’s something you’ve got to adjust to and roll with it.”

Milone (1-0) faced the minimum in five of his innings, including getting through the fourth despite throwing only two strikes among his 10 pitches.

Perhaps for a night, Milone made it easier for the small group of fans who turned out at the Coliseum to picture life without lefty Gio Gonzalez. The A’s acquired Milone from the Nationals in December, sending All-Star Gonzalez to the nation’s capital.

Milone won his sixth career start after the Nationals won all of his five starts last season. Grant Balfour finished the three-hit shutout for his second save in as many chances.

Milone started the game by allowing a leadoff double to Jason Bourgeois, who was then thrown out on an impressive double play in which right fielder Josh Reddick caught Lorenzo Cain’s liner and fired to third baseman Josh Donaldson, who backhanded the short one-hopper and put the tag on from his knees.

“It was one of those things he threw it right on the base and I really didn’t want him to get to the bag,” Donaldson said. “I used my catcher instincts.”

Donaldson also delivered an RBI single in the second that held up for Milone. The A’s missed chances to add on that inning, then Donaldson struck out swinging with the bases loaded in the sixth.

Luis Mendoza hung tough through 5 2/3 innings in the opener of Kansas City’s lone trip to Oakland this year. The right-hander (0-1), who went 4-0 with a 0.47 ERA in six spring training starts, allowed one earned run on five hits, struck out two and walked four.

Those two strikeouts were impressive just based on who they were against — new A’s cleanup hitter Yoenis Cespedes.

Cespedes, who hit three home runs in his first four games that were all against Seattle, also drew a walk and grounded out. Coco Crisp, who moved to left field so Cespedes could start the year in his familiar center field spot, singled in the seventh then stole his first base of the year. Kurt Suzuki added three hits for the A’s.

After a day off Sunday following two home games with the Mariners to wrap up a season-opening series that began with two games in Tokyo, the A’s were returning to a more regular regimen.

“It felt a little weird,” said manager Bob Melvin, who took in the Masters on Sunday. “We’re back on our routine.”

Royals manager Ned Yost sat Mike Moustakas and Alex Gordon for the opener of the three-game series after Moustakas went 1 for 11 and Gordon 0 for 13 in Kansas City’s winning series to open the year at Los Angeles. Yost said both would be back in the lineup Tuesday night.

Bourgeois led off in Gordon’s spot and gave Kansas City more production there in one at-bat than it got in the entire three-game series against the Angels.

The Royals had three runners thrown out on the bases.

“That’s the way we play. We play aggressive and we play to win,” Yost said. “We don’t play safe. We pick our spots, and give them credit, they executed.”

Kansas City is eager to return home this weekend considering the Royals haven’t been back since before spring training began in February.

The A’s announced late in the game that right-handed reliever Joey Devine would undergo right elbow surgery Tuesday performed by Dr. James Andrews in Pensacola, Fla. Devine had “Tommy John” reconstructive surgery in April 2009.

— Associated Press —

Once the Kansas City Royals weathered the Opening Day hype around Albert Pujols and the Los Angeles Angels, the majors’ youngest team calmly showed why baseball might want to start getting excited about them, too.

Eric Hosmer and Billy Butler homered and drove in three runs apiece, and the Royals beat the Angels 7-3 Sunday, taking two of three in their season-opening series.

Jonathan Sanchez (1-0) survived through five innings to win his first start with the Royals, who dampened the revamped Angels’ much-hyped home debut with two victories after getting shut out on Friday. For a club with 16 losing seasons in the last 17 years, the weekend was undeniably exciting.

“We had one bad inning in the whole series, really,” Kansas City manager Ned Yost said, referring to the Angels’ five-run eighth on Friday night. “Besides that, we played great. … We knew there would be a lot of hype. They’ve got a phenomenal team, and we knew it would be a big challenge, but we stood up and played them extremely well.”

Butler hit a two-run homer off Ervin Santana (0-1) in the first inning that barely eluded Peter Bourjos’ glove at the center field wall, and Hosmer added a two-run shot in the fifth before scoring his third run of the day on Butler’s double in the seventh. Hosmer, the Royals’ prized 22-year-old first baseman, also homered Saturday, getting off to a dynamic start to his first full major league season.

“It was a good test for our ball team,” Hosmer said. “I think this was a big statement for us to take two of three. It was big for our team to bounce back and take the series.”

Sanchez allowed four hits and three walks, but was resilient in his debut for the Royals, who acquired him last November in a trade with San Francisco for Melky Cabrera.

Pujols went 2 for 3 with a double and two walks, driving in his first run for the Angels with a first-inning groundout. Los Angeles’ new $240 million slugger went 3 for 10 with two doubles in his first three games at Angel Stadium.

Vernon Wells homered in the eighth, but Los Angeles again struggled defensively, foundered at the plate with runners in scoring position (0 for 13) and didn’t get what’s expected from its vaunted starting rotation after Santana yielded seven hits and six runs while failing to get out of the sixth inning.

“There’s a lot of things that went south in the last two games,” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. “They have a good offensive club, but if you make your pitches, you’re going to pitch well against them, as Jered (Weaver) showed in Game 1.

After Weaver blanked the Royals for eight innings on opening day, the Angels’ next two pitchers haven’t lived up to their billing. Kansas City battered Dan Haren on Saturday, and Santana allowed a runner to reach scoring position in all but one of his 5 2/3 innings.

“(Santana) looked a little out of sync in his delivery, and he wasn’t able to repeat pitches,” Scioscia said. “His ball-strike ratio was terrible, and when he got into a tough part of the game, he was behind everybody. Those guys got some fastballs to hit, and they didn’t miss them.”

Wells snapped a 1-for-11 start to his season with a homer into the bullpen off Kelvin Herrera, but Crow stopped the Angels’ rally, stranding two runners in scoring position. Howie Kendrick and Pujols reached base to open the ninth, but Jonathan Broxton relieved Aaron Crow and struck out Torii Hunter, Wells and Kendrys Morales for an impressive finish to his first save for the Royals.

“It’s not a concern. The talent is there,” said Mark Trumbo, who had two hits. “I mean, who’s to say we can’t go on a real nice run on this road trip? I think everyone is actually swinging the bat well. We just haven’t had a tremendous amount of luck with runners in scoring position just yet.”

Trumbo, the Angels’ new third baseman, mishandled a grounder in the sixth inning for his third error in three games. Trumbo led Los Angeles in homers and RBIs as a rookie last season, but is trying to learn a new position on the job after Pujols supplanted him at first base.

— Associated Press —

Luke Hochevar was tired of getting knocked around by the Los Angeles Angels so he took a new approach.

Hochevar took a shutout into the seventh inning and the Kansas City Royals got solo homers from Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas against Dan Haren in a 6-3 victory Saturday.

“That’s a good ballclub, no doubt about it, and it’s not an easy lineup to navigate through,” Hochevar said. “They’re stacked from one to nine, so I knew that I had to execute a lot of quality pitches. That was my focus, especially with Haren on the mound. Early on, I think the results were better than my execution, and then I kind of hit a groove in the fourth and started making a lot of quality pitches in key situations.”

Hochevar (1-0) was charged with two runs and five hits over 6 1/3 innings in his season debut. The right-hander, who was the first overall pick in the 2006 draft by the Royals and their opening-day starter last year, came in 0-3 with a with an 8.02 ERA in his four previous starts against the Angels.

Hochevar gave up a pair of one-out singles in the seventh and was relieved by Tim Collins with a 5-0 lead. Bobby Abreu lined the left-hander’s first pitch into the right field corner for an RBI double and Torii Hunter scored on a groundout by Vernon Wells.

The Angels, who were shut out through the first five innings a major league-worst 50 times last season — have done so in each of their first two games despite the addition of three-time NL MVP Albert Pujols. Friday night they won their opener 5-0 with a five-run eighth after getting blanked for six innings by Bruce Chen.

“We’re still in spring training mode and pitchers are way ahead of us, but I think we’ll catch up soon. You can’t panic right now with 160 games to go,” Hunter said. “Today was one of those days. Hochevar kept us off-balance and we couldn’t score any runs off him. He changed speeds, had his cutter working, and that’s something we couldn’t make adjustments on.”

Jonathan Broxton, who became the Royals’ closer after two-time All-Star Joakim Soria had season-ending Tommy John surgery April 3, followed Collins and Greg Holland out of the bullpen and got the final three outs after inheriting a 6-2 lead. He gave up a sacrifice fly by Abreu before retiring Wells on a game-ending double play.

Broxton hasn’t had a save since May 2, 2011, with the Dodgers — he was shut down two days later because of bone spurs in his elbow and missed the rest of the season. The Royals signed him as a free agent in November.

“It feels pretty good to get out there again. My elbow felt fine,” said the two-time All-Star. “It was very frustrating last year, especially because I couldn’t go out there and help the team win. I hated that the season ended up the way it did for me, but hopefully they got everything straight. I’m fine right now, so we’ll just continue to go forward.”

Pujols got his first hit with Los Angeles, a double in the fourth. He lined a 2-2 pitch over the head of left fielder Alex Gordon with one out in the fourth and tried to score on a single to left by Kendrys Morales. But Gordon, who won a Gold Glove last season, charged the ball and made a one-hop throw to the plate to get Pujols, whose hook slide appeared to have beaten Humberto Quintero’s tag.

Haren (0-1) gave up five runs and 11 hits over 5 1/3 innings and struck out five. Morales was 4 for 4 with a double in his second game with the Angels after a severe ankle injury in 2010, when he jumped on home plate after a walkoff grand slam.

Jeff Francoeur, playing in his 1,000th regular-season game, hit a two-run single with the bases loaded in the first. It was the fourth straight hit allowed by Haren, who minimized the damage by striking out Betancourt and Moustakas. Quintero led off the Royals’ second with the first of his two doubles and scored on Lorenzo Cain’s sacrifice fly.

“I didn’t make too many quality pitches, and that’s a recipe for disaster,” Haren said. “I threw too many pitches up in the zone and wasn’t really controlling the count too well. Obviously they got off to a quick start, getting four singles in a row, and I just never really got into a rhythm. … But you’ve got to hand it to them. They’ve got a good ballclub and they did the most with the pitches I left out over the plate.”

— Associated Press —

The Kansas City Royals announced Friday the club has reached an agreement on a multi-year contract with outfielder Alex Gordon.  The contract includes four guaranteed years through the 2015 season, then a player option for the 2016 campaign.  Consistent with club policy, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The 28-year-old Gordon won both the Les Milgram Royals Player of the Year as well as his first Rawlings Gold Glove Award in 2011.  He batted .303 (185-for-611) with 45 doubles, four triples, 23 home runs, 87 RBI and 101 runs scored in 151 games for Kansas City.  Gordon was one of five players in the Major Leagues to post a greater than .300 average, 45 or more doubles and 20 or more home runs, joining the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera, the Red Sox’ Jacoby Ellsbury and Adrian Gonzalez, and the Yankees’ Robinson Cano.  In his first full season as a full-time outfielder, he led the Majors with 20 outfield assists, also setting a single-season franchise record.

The Royals’ first-round selection (second overall) in 2005 out of the University of Nebraska, Gordon and his wife, Jamie, reside in Lincoln, Neb., with their one-year-old son, Max.

— Royals Media Relations —

Kansas City Royals closer Joakim Soria will undergo reconstructive elbow surgery and will miss the season.

The surgery is scheduled for April 3.

Soria made the decision Friday after being examined by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., for a third opinion. He had already been diagnosed with right elbow ligament damage by the Royals physicians and Dr. Lewis Yocum, who will perform the surgery in Los Angeles.

Soria left the game Sunday against Cleveland with pain in his elbow. Soria, a two-time All-Star, who has 160 saves the past five seasons, also missed the 2003 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Manager Ned Yost said in Soria’s absence the three candidates to close games for the Royals are Jonathan Broxton, Greg Holland and Aaron Crow.

— Associated Press —