Cubs 13, Royals 1

SURPRISE, Ariz. (AP) -- Ryan Dempster looks ready for the rotation.

The right-hander pitched four innings of one-hit ball and Daryle Ward went 4-for-4, sending the Chicago Cubs to a 13-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Dempster, who had 28 saves last season, allowed one run. He walked two and struck out two.

"I felt like I was a pretty darn good starter before I got hurt," Dempster said. "I believe in myself. I know what I did."

Dempster had major elbow surgery in 2003 with the Cincinnati Reds, and the Cubs made him a closer in 2005. He won 39 games as a starter with the Reds and Florida Marlins from 2000-02 before the surgery.

Dempster is hoping to fill one of two vacancies in Chicago's rotation.

"There's a lot of talk about it, but I don't concern myself with it," he said. "I feel good stamina-wise and arm-wise. I threw a lot of good sinkers, kept the ball down around the knees."

Royals outfielder Jose Guillen made his first appearance this spring and went 0-for-3.

Kerry Wood worked a perfect fifth for the Cubs, striking out one.

After retiring the first six Royals batters, Dempster ran into problems in the third. Mark Teahen drew a leadoff walk and scored on John Buck's double.

Dempster hit Tony Pena Jr. with a pitch and walked Mark Grudzielanek to load the bases with one out, but worked out of the jam when Ross Gload grounded into a double play.

"The first couple of innings were real good and then I got in a little bit of a jam," Dempster said. "It's nice to be familiar with those and come back. It was a little bit of a shaky inning, but it was nice to get a double play."

Ward drove in three runs and raised his batting average to .692. Eric Patterson had three hits, including a two-run homer, to lead Chicago's 21-hit outburst. Felix Pie and Micah Hoffpauir also had three hits apiece for the Cubs, who had six players with multihit games.

The Cubs scored in every inning but the second and broke the game open with a five-run third against Brett Tomko. Alex Cintron's three-run double was the big hit in the inning.

Tomko gave up six runs, five earned, and nine hits in 2 1-3 innings.

"I just chalk it up as one of those games," Tomko said. "It's my second real start of the spring, so I'm not going to sit here and dissect too much.

"I got to two strikes great, but everything was up after that for the most part. I made some good pitches when I wanted to and I made some not-so-good pitches when I didn't want to," he said.

Royals outfielder Shane Costa was held out with a leg injury.