BOSTON (AP) — Kody Clemens felt right at home in Fenway Park — where his father once ruled on the mound.
And his dad got him a gift, too.
The Twins second baseman, the son of former Red Sox pitcher Roger Clemens, homered into the right-field seats in the sixth inning during his first game at Fenway to help Minnesota to a 4-3 victory Saturday.
“It’s great,” Kody Clemens said. “The experience at Fenway is amazing. … To be able to play in the game was super cool. I just had fun out there today. It was awesome.”
With his seven-time Cy Young Award-winning father watching from a luxury box along the first-base line, Clemens hit an 0-1 slider from Hunter Dobbins over the short wall in the right-field corner.
“It was amazing,” Roger said, standing in the box during a rain delay with his wife — Kody’s mother Debbie — and Kody’s wife Jessica.
“Just think about — I put myself in his shoes — even though he’s my kid, he’s here at Fenway, and he obviously wants to perform well, hitting a home run would be the ultimate thing to do and he goes up there up in a clutch situation and does it,” Roger said. “Just a great moment and I’m glad we’re here.”
Kody enjoyed his special moment in front of his family and said hitting one at Fenway was “up there, for sure” when he was growing up thinking where he’d like to hit one out.
“The family ties and everything,” he said. “That was super cool.”
Kody said someone told him his dad got the ball back for him.
A fan threw the ball back onto the field and the ball attendant retrieved it in shallow right, before tossing it into the stands behind first base.
“We got the ball,” Roger said.
He said a friend of his saw where they threw it, then that friend went down and got the fan and his family to bring it up to the box to Roger. They took a photo with the elder Clemens, who said he was sending the fan some items.
“It was so crazy,” Debbie said of what the three of them did, celebrating in the box. “It was just great being here and for his first time being able to play.”
Jessica made her first trip to Boston. She’s going home with an extra gift.
Debbie said the ball was going to “Kody and Jessica.”
The 28-year-old Clemens, who has 15 career homers, was acquired from Philadelphia on April 26 after being designated for assignment by the Phillies.
It was just his third at-bat in Fenway and gave Minnesota a 3-1 edge.
In his first at-bat Saturday, Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story made a diving catch of his inning-ending liner in the second.
Roger Clemens, who was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2014, went 192-111 over 13 seasons with Boston, and won the AL MVP and Cy Young Award in 1986.
In April 1986, he became the first pitcher to strike out 20 in a game.
He had a career record of 354-184 with a 3.12 ERA over 24 seasons, but is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame after falling short of the required 75% vote and running out of eligibility to be on the ballot. He maintains he never used performance-enhancing drugs despite being accused of doing so.
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