“Taking after his dad”: Like Father Like Son, Kody Clemens steps onto the mound


“Taking after his dad”: Like Father Like Son, Kody Clemens steps onto the mound

Kody Clemens and Roger Clemens

Kody Clemens made his way to the mound after just entering the Major Leagues for two weeks after he followed in his father’s footsteps by reaching the Major Leagues. The Cy Young award-winning father, Roger Clemens, must be proud of his son.

On Wednesday, Detroit Tigers used three position players to pitch for the first time in franchise history, Kody Clemens was one of them. With Detroit Tigers down 11-0 to the White Sox and looking to save their pitchers, manager A.J. Hinch called on Clemens to pitch in the eighth inning.

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A predictive manager, A.J. Hinch, also mentioned earlier how he missed a chance to use Kody Clemens on the mound at Yankee Stadium, where the Tigers suffered a 13-0 loss on June 3. Once Chicago disengaged early on Wednesday afternoon, with Detroit’s pitching staff already laden from a bullpen game Tuesday night, Hinch ran a procession of position players to the mound for the final three innings.

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With a recent welcome to Major Leagues, Kody Clemens pitches for the Detroit Tigers

Kody Clemens
Kody Clemens

“Once you go to that pen and its kind of one man after another, then the dilemma comes,” Manager Hinch said. “Do you want to use [closer Gregory] Soto? Do you want to use [veteran lefty Andrew] Chafin? Do you want to use [Michael] Fulmer? [Wily] Peralta pitched yesterday. [Will] Vest has thrown the last two days. Or do you just kind of take it, bite the bullet and use position players?”

“Kody, I just talked to him and told him to throw as slow as he could,” Hinch said Kody Clemens, son of Roger Clemens, gave up hits to three of his first four batters, including a leadoff double that José Abreu pulped to the wall in right-centre field. Austin Meadows made a standout catch in left on a hard-hit drive from Seby Zavala. After a four-pitch walk to Danny Mendick, Clemens induced an inning-ending grounder from AJ Pollock.

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“Obviously, position players pitching is fun,” Javier Báez said, “but the score is not fun. We take the good parts of the situation we’re in. We take a positive out of a negative.”

Kody Clemens’ pitching debut came just two days after he registered his first MLB hit, ending an 0-for-17 start with a two-hit performance in Monday’s series opener.

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