Kody

Clemens

Clemens has been leading off against righties, but he sat out the last two games because the Twins were facing lefties. Today, he was inserted into the seventh spot against Cole Ragans and had the game’s biggest hit through seven innings, singling to right with none on and Victor Caratini on first in the second. Alas, Caratini forgot he was a catcher and was thrown out easily trying to take third on the hit. On the plus side, that allowed Clemens to get to second. Clemens then went on to score the only run until the eighth when he was caught napping with two outs. He thought strike two was an inning-ending strike three and was in no-man’s land when Salvador Perez botched the throw to second, sending it into center and allowing Clemens to score. From there, Clemens continued to involve himself by dropping a foul popup and struggling to handle a couple of bouncing throws to first, which, on one occasion, nearly led to him getting trampled by Perez. In the fifth, he walked and tried to steal second base, only to have his helmet fall off and cut him on the nose during his head-first dive, He was out, though it looked like he might be safe because Bobby Witt Jr. initially tagged the unattached helmet. Finally, Clemens hit one of the Twins’ three consecutive homers off Steven Cruz as Minnesota put the game away in the ninth. He’ll likely be back leading off Friday against Joe Boyle and the Rays.

Clemens led off the game with a single off of Brayan Bello and swiped second base, but he was then doubled off on a line drive. He then smacked a two-out triple in the eighth inning before being lifted for a pinch runner. The 29-year-old utilityman has had a solid spring, hitting .290 (9-for-31) with zero homers, five RBI and a pair of stolen bases.

Justin Crawford lost Clemens’ very catchable triple in the sun, but it was a well-hit ball to the wall in center and actually would have been a homer in six major league ballparks. Clemens is 6-for-18 so far this spring, and he’s made five starts at second and two at first. He doesn’t really seem like a great fit for the Twins’ current roster in light of the Josh Bell signing and Trevor Larnach’s retention, but many of Minnesota’s hitters aren’t known for their durability. He’ll probably play first against some righties initially and then land an expanded role if players get hurt.

Clemens led off the third inning with a double off of Patrick Corbin then came around to score the Twins’ first run on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Byron Buxton. He then delivered an RBI single off of Hoby Milner in the sixth inning that extended their advantage to 3-1. The versatile 29-year-old is now slashing .219/.288/.447 with 19 homers and 52 RBI in a career-high 366 plate appearances on the season.

Clemens will get the day off with Edouard Julien getting the start at first base against Luis Gil and the Yankees’ pitching staff.

Clemens homered twice off Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt. Then in the ninth inning with the Twins down 8-6, Clemens hit a solo shot off Jake Woodford for his third home run of the game. The Twins would go on to score two more runs and win the game. Clemens is hitting just .213, but is a legitimate source of power in deeper leagues with 19 home runs.

Clemens came into the day hitting 201/.260/.336 since the All-Star break, which has cost him some playing time. He’ll probably start against most right-handers the rest of the way, but he needs a late surge to ensure that the Twins keep him on the roster this winter. It’ll help his cause that he’ll likely fall short of Super Two arbitration eligibility, allowing the Twins to keep paying him close to the minimum.

That wouldn’t seem to make muse sense. However, while the Twins are facing a left-handed opener in Fraser Ellard today, they’ve mostly set the lineup as if they were facing a righty. The one caveat there is that Kody Clemens is on the bench. Also, Larnach is batting fifth, rather than his usual second.

Clemens had the biggest hit of this game with a two-run, go-ahead double in the sixth inning as Yankees’ reliever Yerry De Los Santos imploded. With the Twins’ trade deadline exodus, Clemens has been one of the main beneficiaries starting 15 straight games and hitting fourth in most of them.

Kody Clemens moves to left field, and Edouard Julien will start at first base. We’ll provide an update when we know more about how severe the injury is for Larnach.