Twins defeat Red Sox on Kody Clemens' home run with dad Roger in attendance

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on May 3, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON – Kody Clemens, the son of a seven-time Cy Young Award winner who won a Most Valuable Player award and pitched in a World Series as a member of the Boston Red Sox, accomplished something his dad never did at Fenway Park.

Clemens, playing in his first game at the ballpark Saturday, hit a home run.

With his dad, Roger Clemens, in the stands, Kody electrified the Minnesota Twins dugout with his go-ahead, two-run home run in the sixth inning. It was a no-doubter to right field, Kody celebrating with a bat flip, that helped the Twins end their four-game losing streak with a 4-3 victory.

The Twins improved their record to 2-6 in one-run games this year.

Boston scored two runs against Twins reliever Brock Stewart after a 72-minute rain delay, which produced rain for only a couple of minutes, before Griffin Jax, Cole Sands and Jhoan Duran combined for the final eight outs.

Sands pitched around a pair of two-out singles in the eighth inning, and Duran stranded two baserunners in the ninth after he permitted a leadoff single and intentionally walked Alex Bregman with two outs.

The home run from Kody elicited memories from when Red Sox Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski watched his grandson, Mike, homer in his first game at Fenway Park. Kody, 28, was born during his dad‘s final season with the Red Sox, four months before Roger set an MLB record with a 20-strikeout game.

Kody made a trip to Fenway when he was with the Detroit Tigers in 2022, but he never appeared in a game. One inning after the Twins left the bases loaded when Carlos Correa flew out to shallow right field, Kody connected on a slider that sat over the middle of the plate from Red Sox starter Hunter Dobbins. Correa met Kody at the top of the dugout steps to congratulate him before Kody strode through the dugout line of high fives.

It was the Twins’ first homer with a runner on base in their past 43 innings.

Bailey Ober pitched six strong innings to keep the Twins one swing from taking the lead. He surrendered seven hits and one run while matching his season high with six strikeouts. He’s permitted no more than one run in five of his past six starts.

The Twins were hitless in five at-bats with a runner in scoring position through the first six innings. After Ryan Jeffers hit a two-out double in the second inning, Kody lined out to diving Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story.

Byron Buxton led off the fourth inning with a single, then helped create a run even when he was out. Correa, the next batter, hit a ground-ball to shortstop that should‘ve been a routine double play, but Buxton’s speed sliding into second forced Red Sox second baseman David Hamilton into a wide throw.

After Correa was safe at first base, Brooks Lee followed with a double and Ty France drove in a run with a groundout.

Ober allowed three straight batters to reach base with two outs in the third inning. Jarren Duran hit a double to right field, and he advanced to third when a pickoff attempt bounced off Correa’s glove. Rafael Devers followed with an RBI single when he lined a fastball to center in a two-strike count. Ober walked Bregman before he induced an inning-ending pop-up.

The Red Sox didn’t have another baserunner reach third base until the seventh inning. Stewart hit his first batter, then gave up an RBI triple to Duran on a cutter that was deposited into the right-center gap. Devers added an RBI ground-ball single through the middle before Jax retired the next two batters.

The Twins were clinging to a one-run lead in the eighth inning when pinch runner DaShawn Keirsey Jr. was thrown out at the plate. Keirsey had replaced Jeffers, who hit a leadoff single, on the basepaths, swiped second and advanced to third on a flyout. He was running on contact with the infield drawn in when Harrison Bader chopped a ground-ball to third base. Keirsey was out by several steps.

A miscommunication between Correa and Kody on a ground-ball in the bottom of the eighth turned into a single. Sands allowed another single before inducing an inning-ending double play.

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