Kody Clemens hits three home runs as Twins survive wild ninth inning for walk-off 9-8 victory over Diamondbacks

Bobby Nightengale, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Sep 12, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — Kody Clemens hit three homers and drove in five runs, almost singlehandedly carrying the Twins offense Friday, and yet he wasn’t the guy who teammates piled onto after a zany 9-8 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

After Trevor Larnach drew a tying bases-loaded walk in the ninth inning, Luke Keaschall drove in the winning run with a walk-off sacrifice fly, scoring Byron Buxton from third. Clemens was one of the first players out of the dugout to hug Keaschall, securing a wild victory over a Diamondbacks team on the fringe of the National League wild card race in their series opener at Target Field.

The victory gave Twins manager Rocco Baldelli his 522nd win in seven seasons, matching Sam Mele for the third-most managerial wins in team history. Baldelli, who has guided the Twins to a 522-495 record during his tenure, trails only Tom Kelly (1,140) and Ron Gardenhire (1,068) on the club’s all-time wins list.

The Twins entered the ninth inning with a two-run lead and their most reliable remaining reliever, Cole Sands, on the mound. Sands recorded only one out before it vanished. Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno lifted an elevated fastball over the left-field wall for a go-ahead, three-run homer.

Sands, bent at the waist, dropped his head once the ball cleared the wall. Moreno celebrated with a bat flip.

Clemens opened the bottom of the ninth inning with a solo homer off Diamondbacks reliever Jake Woodford, the 14th three-homer performance in Twins history. The next three batters reached base against Woodford — Edouard Julien had a pinch-hit single, Buxton was hit by a pitch and Austin Martin walked on four pitches — before Larnach drew a walk against lefthander Andrew Saalfrank and Keaschall lofted his game-winning fly ball.

The Twins scored runs in five separate innings Friday, and it almost all centered around Clemens. He clubbed a leadoff, 422-foot home run in the third inning, crushing a down-the-middle cutter from Diamondbacks starter Brandon Pfaadt over the wall in right-center field.

In the fourth inning, the Twins loaded the bases with no outs after three consecutive singles off Pfaadt. The rally nearly derailed when Brooks Lee hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Martin, but Matt Wallner was thrown out when he didn’t anticipate the throw being cut off around third base. Wallner, attempting to retreat to second, made the bizarre decision not to slide and was tagged out.

When it looked like the Twins ran themselves out of a big inning, Clemens drilled a down-the-middle sinker into the right-field seats for a two-run homer. Clemens, who recorded his first multihomer game, carried his bat halfway up the first-base line as he watched the ball sail into the second row of seats.

After Martin hit a leadoff double in the fifth inning, scoring after two subsequent groundouts, it was Clemens’ turn to hit again in the sixth. Lee drew a walk against Arizona reliever Kyle Backhus, and Clemens bashed the next pitch — a down-the-middle sinker — to the left field wall for an RBI double.

Pablo López, making his first home start since returning from a three-month stint on the injured list, yielded four hits and two runs (zero earned) in five innings.

He issued three walks, matching a season high, and pitched with a runner in scoring position in four of his five innings. The Diamondbacks scored three batters into Friday’s game after Geraldo Perdomo drew a leadoff walk, stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error from Twins catcher Jhonny Pereda. Corbin Carroll drove in Perdomo with an RBI single in an eight-pitch at-bat.

Ildemaro Vargas, who played 10 games for the Twins in 2020, hit a two-out single in the fifth inning and Carroll followed with a walk. López induced a ground ball against Gabriel Moreno, and second baseman Luke Keaschall made a sliding stop to his left, but Keaschall airmailed his throw to the Twins’ dugout. Vargas scored on Keaschall’s sixth error in 33 games he played in the field.

López, who struck out six batters, has posted a 2.64 ERA through 13 starts this season, and the Twins have a 5-0 record when he’s pitching at home.

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