Clemens shows off power, sparkling defense vs. Royals

MINNEAPOLIS – From the defense to the slugging, Kody Clemens looks like a natural first baseman.

Clemens, a career utility man who has become the Twins’ primary first baseman this year, hit two homers and made two tremendous defensive plays in Minnesota’s Thursday night series opener against the Royals.

The homers were his seventh and eighth of the season, and it’s the second multi-homer game of his Major League career. He hit three at Arizona last September. They were also his sixth and seventh home runs against Kansas City in his career – which is the most long balls he’s hit against a single team.

On the defensive side, he continued what’s been a strong year despite his relative inexperience at first base. With the bases loaded in the second inning, Bobby Witt scorched a hard ground ball to Clemens’ left. He made the diving stab and threw home from his knees to get the forceout, preventing what could have been multiple runs.

An inning later, Salvador Perez hit a popup into foul territory down the first base line, and Clemens chased it down and made an acrobatic catch to get the leadoff out. Entering the game, Clemens rated plus-one outs above average at first base, after grading out plus-three there down the stretch last season.