{"id":867491,"date":"2026-08-25T05:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T05:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867491\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T05:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T05:04:12","slug":"conforto-and-kelly-hit-back-to-back-hrs-lift-the-cubs-over-the-diamondbacks-7-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/867491\/","title":{"rendered":"Conforto and Kelly hit back-to-back HRs, lift the Cubs over the Diamondbacks 7-0"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX — – Michael Conforto<\/a> and Carson Kelly<\/a> hit back-to-back homers, Kevin Gausman<\/a> gave up just three hits over seven innings and the Chicago Cubs<\/a> beat the Arizona Diamondbacks<\/a> 7-0 on Monday night.<\/p>\n

The Cubs moved to 5 1\/2 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> for the NL Central lead. The Brewers were off Monday.<\/p>\n

Conforto and Kelly hit their homers off reliever Taylor Clarke<\/a> with two outs in the sixth, breaking open a tight game. Conforto’s two-run shot to right field made it 4-0 and then Kelly – who played 4 1\/2 seasons with the Diamondbacks – hurt his former team with a solo smash to left.<\/p>\n

That was plenty of support for Gausman (2-1), who cruised through the D-backs’ lineup, needing just 94 pitches to complete his seven innings. The right-hander gave up three hits and a walk while striking out six in his best outing for the Cubs since being acquired at the trade deadline from the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Cubs took a 1-0 lead in the second when Pedro Ram\u00edrez smacked a triple down the right-field line that scored Ian Happ<\/a>. They pushed the advantage to 2-0 in the fifth when Seiya Suzuki<\/a>‘s double off the left-field wall brought home Conforto.<\/p>\n

Conforto reached base four times, hitting a single, double and homer while also drawing a walk. Happ and Ram\u00edrez both had two hits.<\/p>\n

D-backs right-hander Merrill Kelly<\/a> (8-12) gave up three runs on five hits and three walks over 5 2\/3 innings. He struck out four.<\/p>\n

Arizona managed just five hits – all of them singles. Corbin Carroll<\/a> stole two bases.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

The D-backs send RHP Brandon Pfaadt<\/a> (7-1, 3.39 ERA) on Tuesday against Cubs RHP Clay Holmes<\/a> (5-6, 2.49).<\/p>\n

——<\/p>\n

See AP’s full MLB coverage here<\/a>br\/]<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 ESPN Internet Ventures. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX — – Michael Conforto and Carson Kelly hit back-to-back homers, Kevin Gausman gave up just three hits…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[436424,592,64,63,5158,794,591,85],"class_list":["post-867491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-436424","tag-arizona-diamondbacks","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-espn","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}