PHOENIX -- The 2009 Cactus League scoreless streak for Jack Egbert came to an end at 10 innings during Monday's 11-7 White Sox loss to the Royals at Camelback Ranch.

Kansas City's two-run rally with two outs in the seventh certainly won't dampen the excellent mound showing to date coming from the 25-year-old right-hander. It's a far cry from Spring Training 2008, when an elbow injury limited Egbert to two innings and briefly turned him from an up-and-coming, top-flight prospect to a forgotten man.

"It really was frustrating," said Egbert of his injury-plagued 2008 season. "Coming into the year, I had momentum from the previous year and the Arizona Fall League, and I think I had a good opportunity.

"But I never got a chance. I just kind of hung out for a few weeks and got sent down to the Minor League camp. Now, I'm just hoping to keep throwing well."

Egbert produced a 12-8 record and 3.06 ERA over 28 starts for Double-A Birmingham in 2007, with the sinkerball pitcher fanning 165 over 161 2/3 innings, while yielding just 138 hits and 44 walks. He earned a spot on the 40-man roster with his first Spring Training invite, but right elbow inflammation cost him Cactus League action and placed Egbert on the disabled list to start the season.

When he returned, Egbert started with an 0-4 record and 7.55 ERA in his first seven games for Triple-A Charlotte. He posted a 4-8 mark and 3.73 ERA in his final 17 trips to the mound.

That inflammation eventually led to surgery to remove bone spurs and chips at the end of the season, when his right elbow started locking up. Back at full strength for 2009, Egbert actually finds benefit from last year's struggles.

"As a starter, you have a few bad outings in a row and it starts stretching out to almost like a month," Egbert said. "It was tough and not a lot of fun for a while. But it also was my first bump in the road in my career and it helped me."

Against the Royals, pitching in relief of Bartolo Colon and Mark Buehrle, Egbert retired Coco Crisp and David DeJesus on groundouts to start the sixth and struck out Alex Gordon swinging to end a scoreless frame. Egbert almost pitched out of trouble in the seventh, inducing a Billy Butler ground ball to second to temporarily strand runners at second and third with two outs, before Alberto Callaspo singled home two runs on a 3-2 pitch.

All but 16 of Egbert's 129 Minor League games have come as a starter, so he figures to begin the 2009 season as part of Charlotte's rotation. Scoreless streak intact or not, Egbert certainly has made the current positive impression that he was looking to make in 2008.

"We're keeping a close eye on him because of the arm problems he's had in the past," said White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. "But great job, and he continues to impress everyone. Every meeting we have, we talk about him and his name keeps coming up. We want to see what he can do."

"This is a really important spring for me," Egbert said. "I didn't get a chance last year. It's just good to feel good again and put up some zeros."