Surprise, Ariz. ? Emil Brown might be hitting his way into the Kansas City Royals’ outfield.

A non-roster invitee to spring training, Brown went 3-for-3 with a three-run homer and five RBIs to lead Kansas City to a 12-5 victory over the Chicago Cubs on Monday.

The 30-year-old Brown raised his average to .455 and is among the Cactus League leaders with 14 RBIs, four home runs and 28 total bases.

“He has been making a case since we started playing,” Royals manager Tony Pena said. “The more we play him, he just continues to swing the bat well. Coming into spring training, we said everybody was going to get an opportunity. We’re just going to continue to play him.”

Brown is competing with Aaron Guiel and Abraham Nunez for the Royals’ final outfield slot.

“At the end, we will just have to make a decision on what is best for us,” Pena said.

Brown singled home a run in the Royals’ seven-run second. He walked in the third and singled home another run in the fourth. Then he homered with two outs in the sixth with Matt Stairs and Ken Harvey aboard.

The Royals sent 12 batters to the plate in the second and knocked out Cubs starter Ryan Dempster. Stairs led off with a home run. He finished with three hits and scored three runs.

Mike Sweeney doubled home two runs in the second and homered in the fifth off Joe Borowski. Sweeney has homered in consecutive games.

Dempster retired just four of his 13 batters, allowing eight hits and seven runs, six earned.

Royals starter Zack Greinke went 41/3 innings and yielded two runs, one earned, and five hits.