Royals 10, Dodgers 9
at Surprise, Ariz.
Monday, March 24

Dodgers at the plate: Rafael Furcal led off the first inning with a home run into the right-field bullpen and drove in a pair with a bases-loaded, two-out single in the ninth. Andre Ethier hit a solo shot, his sixth homer this spring, to ignite the three-run fourth. Mark Sweeney rapped two doubles. Chin-Lung Hu had a triple and two singles.

Royals at the plate: Mark Teahen belted a solo home run, his third this spring, into the "party deck" in right field. It was his 12th RBI. Billy Butler and Ross Gload each banged an RBI triple and two singles. Butler is batting .379 (22-for-58) with 13 RBIs. Joey Gathright had three hits and John Buck and Tony Pena had two hits each. Gathright stole his 10th base of the spring.

Dodgers on the mound: Hiroki Kuroda, in his sixth start, worked 5 2/3 innings and surrendered three runs on seven hits. He walked none and struck out four before leaving in the sixth. Joe Beimel gave up two hits and Ramon Troncoso three more before ending the five-run inning.

Royals on the mound: Jorge De La Rosa, hoping to win a rotation spot, gave up four runs and two homers in his four innings. He had five strikeouts and walked two. Joakim Soria allowed three hits and a run but had two strikeouts in one inning. Yasuhiko Yabuta and Jimmy Gobble each pitched a scoreless inning.

Spring Training records: Dodgers 9-17-2, Royals 14-11.

Up next for Dodgers: The Dodgers end the Arizona portion of their vagabond Spring Training at 1:05 PT on Tuesday against the Milwaukee Brewers. Then they fly to Los Angeles for an eagerly awaited complete day off on Wednesday. Starting for the Dodgers in Phoenix will be Brad Penny, who is expected to pitch only three or four innings as a final tuneup for his Opening Day assignment on Monday. The Dodgers were undecided who would follow Penny, but candidates include two pitchers that were scratched from Monday night's game -- closer Takashi Saito, who complained of a sore left hip and 20-year-old phenom Clayton Kershaw.

Up next for Royals: Brett Tomko, trying to nail down the fifth spot in the rotation, will start against the San Diego Padres at 9:05 p.m. CT on Wednesday at Peoria Stadium. Also available to pitch for the Royals: Soria, Yabuta, Ron Mahay, Hideo Nomo and Neal Musser.