"Hiroki Kuroda will return to the Dodgers' starting rotation Monday night for the opener of a nine-game homestand, manager Joe Torre announced before Friday's game with the Cubs. Kuroda, out since an Opening Day win because of a strained left oblique muscle, cleared the final hurdle by throwing a bullpen session in Los Angeles on Friday morning. He had made two rehab starts for Class A Inland Empire, the most recent on Wednesday, when he allowed seven runs in five innings. But Torre is eager to get his warrior back in the rotation. "If he's fine," Torre said, "he'll start Monday." Torre said he hasn't decided who will be removed from the rotation to make room for Kuroda, but it will be one of two left-handers -- Eric Stults or Eric Milton -- who are scheduled to start the Saturday and Sunday night games against the Cubs this weekend. Stults is currently dealing with a jammed pitching thumb that remains sore and stiff. After missing a start because of it, he returned to start in Colorado on Monday, was given a 7-0 lead in the fourth inning, but couldn't get out of the fifth, walking seven. Milton lasted only four innings in his first Dodgers start May 16, was skipped a turn, then followed Stults on Tuesday in Colorado with his first Major League win in nearly three years, although he lasted only five innings."