With dad watching, Clemens launches Fenway rocket to power win

BOSTON -- Clemens is a familiar name around Fenway Park.

Roger Clemens made history with a 20-strikeout game on this mound and helped spark a run to the World Series for the 1986 Red Sox. He won 192 games in his Red Sox career with a 3.06 ERA and 2,590 strikeouts.

He made other notable starts in Boston with other teams as well, including a pair of highly-anticipated playoff starts for the Yankees in the 1999 and 2003 American League Championship Series. Pedro Martinez outdueled him in 1999 while “The Rocket” gave New York enough to win the ’03 installment in a game headlined by multiple brawls at the height of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry.

The retired fireballer passed baseball to his sons, including Twins infielder Kody Clemens. The current Clemens in the big leagues saw his name in the lineup for Saturday’s game, which marks his first career game at the ballpark in which his father made a name for himself.

Just like Roger did several times, Clemens took center stage at Fenway Saturday afternoon, though he did so with the bat. Kody broke a 1-1 tie with a two-run home run off Red Sox starter Hunter Dobbins in the sixth inning. His first home run for Minnesota became a decisive one and made the difference in a 4-3 win for the Twins, which snapped a four-game losing streak.

A friend of the Clemens family retrieved the home run ball after a fan threw it on the field and a team member tossed it back in the stands. That’s a memento the family will treasure from a memorable day at a memorable venue.

“It’s exciting,” Clemens said pregame. “I always wanted to play here. I love the atmosphere and how the fans feel like they’re right on top of you. They’re engaged in the game. It’s exciting.”

Kody previously made the trip to Fenway with the Tigers, though he did not play in that series. Roger joked on the NESN broadcast Friday night that he “aired out” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch for not tossing his son in the lineup in those games. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli got an instant reward when he penciled in Clemens for Saturday’s contest.

“It’s a big-time home run for us as a team, but that’s a sweet moment,” 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 will be one of the biggest moments, no matter what he does. Hopefully he plays for 15 more years, but that will be something that he never forgets and I’ll never forget either.”

“It’s up there, for sure, with the family ties and everything,” Clemens said postgame. “Fortunately I got a good pitch to hit and put a good swing on it. It was super cool. Special moment.”

Similar stories wrote themselves in recent years at Fenway Park. San Francisco Giants outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, the grandson of 1967 American League MVP and Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, homered in Boston after visits with his grandfather in both the 2019 and 2024 seasons. Clemens, whose father debuted the season after Yastrzemski’s retirement, became the latest “new” generation to make their mark and follow in their family’s footsteps in Boston.

The 28-year-old embraced the full Fenway experience in this latest visit with the Twins and etched his signature inside the walls of the Green Monster Friday afternoon.

Clemens played his fifth game of the season for the Twins in the middle game of a three-game set. His father expects him to make adjustments during a growing stage after Minnesota acquired him in a trade with the Phillies on April 26. His home run, plus a 383-foot flyout that nearly got out in the eighth inning, should be good progress.

“He had two wonderful Spring Trainings, then he got stymied a little bit in Philly,” Roger Clemens told reporters Friday. “It’s going to take him a few more at-bats to get comfortable. These high-powered arms around the league. Everyone’s so big. I think it’s going to take him some time to work his way back. He’s capable of doing it.”

It took a few years since Kody’s MLB debut back in 2022, but he made the most of his Fenway debut with a momentum swing -- literally -- with his father in attendance.

“It means a lot to him,” Clemens said of his father. “It kickstarted his career. Him breaking the strikeout record here, he says that changed the course of his career. This place is awesome to him. It holds a spot in his heart for sure.”