Clemens has moment at Fenway

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Kody’s first homer at his dad’s old stomping ground highlights Twins’ victory

Twins infielder Kody Clemens celebrates after hitting a 2-run homer in the sixth inning against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday at Fenway Park in Boston. Clemens, the son of former Red Sox star Roger Clemens, hit his first-ever homer at the old ballpark. ROBERT F. BUKATY — ASSOCIATED PRESS

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By Betsy Helfand

bhelfand@pioneerpress.com

BOSTON >> As a member of the Boston Red Sox for 13 years, Roger Clemens has no shortage of memorable moments at Fenway Park. It was where he began one of the most dominant careers of all time. It was the site of his first 20-strikeout game. It was his home when he won the first three Cy Young Awards of his career.

Now, his son has a memorable Fenway moment of his own.

In his very first game at Fenway Park, with his father in attendance, Kody Clemens hit a go-ahead home run in the sixth inning on Saturday evening, helping lift the Twins to a badly-needed 4-3 win over the Red Sox.

“It’s a big-time home run for us as a team but that’s a sweet moment,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He’s got his whole family here. He’s at Fenway Park. Obviously, his dad had so much history in this place with these fans. I bet that’ll be one of the biggest moments — no matter what he does, hopefully he plays for 15 more years — that’ll be something he never forgets and I’ll never forget, either.”

Clemens visited Fenway Park as a Tiger a few years back but did not get a chance to play. He watched from the bench on Friday. But Saturday, when he was inserted into the starting lineup, he made the most of his opportunity.

With the Twins (14-20) and Red Sox (18-17) locked in 1-1 tie, Clemens launched a slider into the right field stands with his parents and wife looking on.

“Let’s go!!! Proud dad moment,” Roger tweeted.

It was a meaningful home run personally, to be sure, and also an important one for the Twins (14-20), who were on a four-game skid and had found offense hard to come by earlier in the game, yet again.

“Fortunately, I got a good pitch there and put a good swing on it,” Clemens said. “It was super cool and a super special moment.”

The Twins scored once more in the inning after Clemens’ home run, with a Trevor Larnach single bringing in their fourth run of the game. That came after they missed out on a chance to break the game open an inning earlier when Carlos Correa flew out with the bases loaded.

The late offense made a winner of Bailey Ober, who turned in his fifth straight quality start. In this one, he allowed just a run — which came in the third inning — and fanned six.

“I’m feeling pretty good as of late,” Ober said. “I feel like today I was able to really get my changeup rolling. … It felt good to be able to use that today and kind of lean on it when I needed to.”

Shortly after Ober recorded the final out of the sixth inning, it started raining at Fenway Park, leading to a 1:12 rain delay, though the amount of time it rained was just a couple minutes.

After the game picked back up, the Red Sox tightened it up, scoring a pair of runs off Brock Stewart, who hit a batter and allowed a triple before Rafael Devers’ single brought home two runs to bring the Red Sox within a run.

Each team threatened in the eighth inning — the Twins had a runner thrown out at home on the contact play and the Red Sox had a pair of runners on with just one out before Cole Sands induced a critical double play — but neither broke through. In the ninth, Jhoan Duran was able to work around a leadoff single to seal the save after the Twins intentionally walked Alex Bregman to get to Wilyer Abreu.

After a handful of close losses this week, it marked just the Twins’ second one-run win of the season.

“For the bullpen to hang on like it did, for Cole Sands to come in and make some huge pitches and then Duran come in and slam the door, that was huge for us,” Ober said. “It was awesome to watch.”