HAINES CITY, Fla. (AP) _ Brett Laxton, showing great improvement from his previous start, gave up two runs and three hits in four innings Wednesday as the Kansas City Royals beat the Atlanta Braves 7-2.

Laxton, obtained from Oakland in the Jeremy Giambi trade, lasted just one inning against Detroit last week, when he gave up five runs, two hits and four walks.

But after George Lombard singled in the first and Andres Galarraga followed with his third homer of the spring, Laxtion settled down and gave up just one more hit the next three innings _ a leadoff triple by Lombard in the third. Laxton then struck out Galarraga.

``Any time a guy gets a leadoff triple ... next thing you know, a double and another run scores,'' Laxton said. ``I tried not to think about him and go after the other guys as hard as I could.''

He struck out Galarraga on a slider.

``I should have thrown him a slider the first time,'' Laxton said. ``But I let him have a fastball and he did his job with it. My game plan was to go with my best pitch. Instead of walking the guy, I wanted to go right after him.''

Loser Bruce Chen gave up three runs in the fourth. Carlos Febles singled with one out, Jermaine Dye and Mike Sweeney hit consecutive two-out doubles and Joe Randa bounced a single past shortstop Ozzie Guillen.

Chen allowed three runs and five hits in four innings, with three strikeouts and no walks.

Kansas City scored four runs in the eighth off Paul Assenmacher on RBI singles by Todd Dunwoody and Paul Sorrento, an error by Lombard in right and a sacrifice fly by Hector Ortiz.

Notes: The Royals optioned RHP Lance Carter, RHP Jeff D'Amico and OF Goefrey Tomlinson to Triple-A Omaha and LHP Justin Lamber to Double-A Wichita. C Izzy Molina, C Paul Phillips, INF Alejandro Prieto and RHP Bill Risley were reassigned to the minor league camp and RHP Clint Sodowsky was released ... The crowd of 4,652 was the largest of the spring at home for the Royals.