How to output template tags without having a <p> enclose them?

I have this code here

<?php $rand_posts = get_posts('post_type=post&numberposts=5&orderby=RAND()');
 foreach( $rand_posts as $post ) :
setup_postdata($post);
?>
<p><a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a><?php the_excerpt(); the_category(', ') ?></p>
 <?php endforeach; ?>

in which the <p> tag is called only once per iteration of the loop, but somehow the output has a <p> tag enclosing the output of the_title, the_excerpt, and the_category. Is there any way to output these 3 items in a single continous line without any <p>’s enclosing them?