A Clemens took the mound on Wednesday, and unfortunately for the Tigers it wasn’t Roger.
Instead, it was Roger Clemens’ son, Kody, a rookie utilityman for Detroit, who made his unexpected Major League pitching debut. The White Sox were up 11-0 when Clemens entered in the top of the eighth inning of the Wednesday afternoon game.
The 26-year-old rookie gave up four hits, a walk, and an earned run in an inning of work for the Tigers.
Among them were a double by Jose Abreu, followed by a single from Yoan Moncada to score a run. Clemens did settle down, though, allowing another single and a walk but no more runs.
Clemens was pulled for catcher Tucker Barnhart to open the ninth and moved to left field to finish out the 13-0 loss.
A Houston native, Clemens normally plays second base, third base and outfield. He failed to live up to his father’s hard-throwing reputation, though, topping out at 49.7 MPH while throwing 10 strikes among his 16 pitches.
Clemens has had a rough start to his major league career, hitting just .087 with an on-base percentage of .160 and slugging .087. Now he adds a 9.00 ERA.