Griffin Jax caps special family day with two dominant innings

Jax had family in and above Target Field on Wednesday.

Minnesota Twins relief pitcher Griffin Jax (22) greets his brother Captain Carson Jax after the captain threw out a ceremonial pitch before the game with the Los Angeles Angels at Target Field in Minneapolis on Sept. 11, 2024. Other members of the Jax family participated in the flyover commemorating the 9/11 Remembrance. / Bruce Kluckhohn-Imagn Images

Capt. Parker Jax spent the better part of Tuesday and Wednesday mission planning, preparing for a meaningful flyover of Target Field in Minneapolis ahead of Wednesday night’s game between the Twins and Los Angeles Angels as part of a pregame commemoration of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. 

Jax, the brother of Twins reliever Griffin Jax, and Capt. Chandler Jax, Griffin’s sister-in-law, were two of the four pilots who flew F-35s over Target Field before the Twins beat the Angels 6-4.

“A lot of mission planning went into this,” Parker said. “… We were probably holding about 30 miles north of the Twins —Target Field — for about 30-45 minutes just to make sure we got the timing down right.”

Parker was part of what was essentially a Jax family reunion at Target Field Wednesday night with several other members of Griffin's family among the announced crowd of 15,660, including his parents and his other brother, Capt. Carson Jax, who threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

“A little high and inside,” Carson said of his pitch. 

The pitch did, however, get the approval of the expert in the family. 

“I don’t know, that was a pretty good first throw,” Griffin said.  

It was a special day for the Jax family, especially when all three brothers can get together despite their busy military and baseball schedules and their distance apart. While Griffin has a full slate with the Twins, Parker is stationed in Utah and Carson is at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif.

They only get to see Griffin play a few games a year. 

“Definitely excited for the A’s to move to Sacramento,” Carson said. “Might be the only one.” 

They got to see Griffin play Wednesday night, and Griffin put a cap on the special day by throwing two dominant innings, the first time he's pitched two innings since July 4, 2022. It looked like he'd been doing it all season. Griffin held the Angels hitless, fanning three across his two-inning outing.

“It’s funny, every time it gets to a day where I pretty much ask like if I can throw no matter what, it ends up being like a situation I would normally throw,” Griffin said. “So going out in the seventh, just kind of watching how the game had gone to that point, short start, a lot of guys throwing before me, I pretty much knew I was going to go back out there for the eighth.” 

It was just the cherry on top of a truly special day for the Jax family.