As Minnesota chases a Wild Card spot, the surging first baseman is fueling the offense with elite power and a clutch hitting streak to keep postseason hopes alive.
The Minnesota Twins fell to the San Diego Padres 6-2 on Friday night, as left-handed starter Connor Prielipp couldn’t slow down San Diego’s bats enough to get Minnesota its fourth straight win. Fernando Tatis had a big night, racking up three hits and an RBI. Luis Rengifo and Manny Machado added two hits each, while Ty France added a big two-run home run.
The Twins were basically completely shut down offensively. They only recorded two hits and struck out seven times, so those two runs look even better and more unlikely after checking the box score. One of those hits was a two-run triple by Minnesota first baseman Kody Clemens, who is on yet another hot streak.
Clemens has hits in five straight games and is hitting .444 with a 1.251 OPS over that span. His two-run triple very nearly left the yard to right-center field, which would have been his second home run in five games and 22nd on the season.
The former Detroit Tiger and Philadelphia Phillie has had an up-and-down year for the Twins while providing plenty of power. This is not the first hit streak of its kind for Clemens, as he’s strung together 5+ game hit streaks multiple times throughout the rest of the season. However, he’s hitting just .237 with a respectable .762 OPS on the season.
Clemens is second only to Byron Buxton with his 21 home runs, and is third to Josh Bell and Brooks Lee with his 63 runs batted in. He is responsible for five of the Twins' last eight runs over their last two games, as this recent stretch has done a lot for his numbers, which had been slipping throughout August.
His two-hit performance in the Twins’ loss to the Phillies on August 16 was his first multi-hit game since July 26, which was the longest spell of not recording two or more hits in Clemens’ season.
Minnesota is in the thick of the playoff race, just 4.5 games out of first place, trailing the first-place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. However, they may be more focused on the Wild Card race, which currently sees them just one game back of a playoff spot behind the Texas Rangers. At 63-66, if Clemens can continue to find his swing and supply these kinds of run production numbers throughout the remainder of the season, don’t be shocked if you see the Twins in the playoffs come September.
