Twins' Kody Clemens off to great start in series with Diamondbacks

Minnesota's Kody Clemens has a couple of weeks to keep building his best major league season.

Clemens hit three home runs Friday night in the Twins' 9-8 comeback win over the Arizona Diamondbacks. The blasts gave him a career-high 19 home runs this year.

Clemens, a 29-year-old who is in his fourth big league season, will look for another stellar performance when Minnesota (65-82) faces Arizona (73-75) on Saturday night in Minneapolis. The Diamondbacks will try to even the best-of-three series after dropping the series opener.

Clemens went 4-for-4 with three homers, a double and five RBIs on Friday. The production boosted his batting average to .213 with 19 homers and 48 RBIs for the season. He's batting .267 this month after just a .185 showing in August.

"It's wild," Clemens said after his three-homer performance. "You kind of black out. I'm trying to sit here and process it at this point, but yeah, awesome day.

"I'm super happy we ended up winning that game. But yeah, it was amazing."

The Diamondbacks will try to bounce back after squandering an 8-6 lead in the ninth inning. Gabriel Moreno hit a three-run homer to put Arizona on top in the Diamondbacks' half of the ninth before the Twins stormed back in their final at-bat.

Diamondbacks right-hander Ryne Nelson (7-3, 3.48 ERA) is set to make his 21st start (31st appearance) of the season. He has 118 strikeouts in 137 innings.

Nelson, 27, has notched four quality starts in a row. He drew a no-decision in his most recent outing as he allowed one run on three hits in six innings in his team's 7-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox last Sunday.

This will be Nelson's third career start against the Twins. In his first two outings, he has been hammered for an 0-2 record and a 16.20 ERA after allowing 12 runs in 6 2/3 innings.

Minnesota will counter with right-hander Joe Ryan (13-8, 3.32 ERA) on Saturday. Ryan is looking to bounce back from a tough performance after giving up five runs on four hits in two innings in an 11-2 loss to the Kansas City Royals last Saturday.

Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said he did not want Friday's loss to the Twins to carry over into Saturday's contest.

"We've got to let ourselves cool down, get our heads about us, get a good night's rest, come out tomorrow," Lovullo said Friday. "But everybody feels terrible in that room. Everybody feels terrible in this room, the coaches' room. It's a rough scene here right now."

Ketel Marte was a late scratch Friday after he fouled a pitch off his foot Wednesday. Lovullo and the Diamondbacks hope he will play on Saturday.

"I penciled him in for the lineup (Saturday)," Lovullo said. "I'm hoping that he gets a good night's rest."

Meanwhile, Clemens is feeling good as Saturday's game approaches.

"Baseball is a crazy game," he said. "Some days you don't see the baseball at all, and some days it looks like a beach ball."

"That's kind of how it's been going for me. Some days I don't see it well, and then (Friday) out of nowhere I saw the ball and got some pitches over the plate, which was nice."

--Field Level Media