Kody

Clemens

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.

Clemens opened the scoring in the top half of the first inning with an RBI double off of Chris Paddack. He then rode home on a two-run blast by Luke Keaschall. Clemens also smacked a two-out double in the third inning and a leadoff single in the eighth. With his three-hit attack, the 29-year-old infielder is now slashing .232/.306/.490 with 12 long balls and 33 RBI on the season.

Clemens drove in his first run with the triple and then doubled home a pair in the eighth. The 29-year-old veteran has done a nice job for Minnesota with an .820 OPS and 29 RBI over 56 games. It sure would be nice if that OPS came with a little higher batting average than a .201 mark, however.

Kody Clemens gets the nod at first base to face Rays righty Taj Bradley on Saturday afternoon at Target Field. France has been scuffling of late, hitting .220 (11-for-50) with one homer over his last 15 games. He’s gone just 3-for-20 at the dish over his past seven contests.