Mariners rally in 12 innings to top Angels 7-6 and pull even atop AL West

Ford’s first big-league moment caps a wild 12th

Two nights, 25 innings, two walk-offs—and a share of first place. The Seattle Mariners kept their late-summer surge alive Thursday with a 7-6, 12-inning win over the Los Angeles Angels at T-Mobile Park, a game that swung so often it felt like two different seasons crammed into one night.

Rookie Harry Ford, summoned off the bench for just his fourth major-league plate appearance, delivered the last word. With the bases loaded and nobody out in the bottom of the 12th, he attacked the first pitch and lifted a deep fly to right. Jorge Polanco tagged and slid headfirst across the plate as the winning run, setting off a celebration that felt as much about the standings as the scoreboard.

Seattle’s sixth straight win moved the club to 79-68, pulling even with Houston after the Astros dropped an afternoon game in Toronto. The ripple effect is felt in two races at once: first place in the AL West and the scramble for the league’s final Wild Card, with Texas lurking two games back.

The game had shape early. Seattle jumped the Angels with four in the second inning, a frame built on smart swings and line-drive damage. J.P. Crawford split the right-center gap for a two-run double, then Julio Rodríguez matched him with a two-run double of his own. By the time the inning ended, the Mariners had a 4-0 cushion and the building felt ready for a cruise.

Bryce Miller made that lead look safe—until it wasn’t. The right-hander overpowered the Angels for 5 2/3 innings and set a career high with 11 strikeouts, leaning on fastballs that played at the top of the zone and a slider that got chases. As his pitch count climbed, the command frayed. Logan Davidson started the climb back with his first major-league home run, a jolting swing that changed the mood and the math.

Then came Mike Trout’s moment. In the fifth, he launched a solo shot to tie it, ending a 29-game homer drought and nudging his career total to 399. The venue was fitting. Trout has punished T-Mobile Park as if it were a second home, and that blast marked the 34th of his career in Seattle—trailing only the totals he’s stacked at Angel Stadium.

From there, the night turned tactical. Bullpens traded zeroes and fire extinguished rallies. Andrés Muñoz won the marquee duel in the 10th, striking out Trout with the go-ahead run on third to preserve the tie. In extras, the automatic runner rule tilted pressure onto every pitch and every decision. Small missteps turned into baserunners; baserunners turned into leverage.

Los Angeles blinked first in the 11th, but Seattle couldn’t land the last swing. J.P. Crawford, who was everywhere all night, punched a two-out single to bring home the tying run and keep the game alive. The Angels answered in the 12th when Matthew Lugo shot an RBI single through the left side off José Castillo to make it 6-5, a swing that felt like a backbreaker—until it wasn’t.

Polanco opened the bottom of the 12th with a ringing double to the wall to score the automatic runner and tie the game again. A walk and an infield single followed, loading the bases with nobody out and turning the inning into a question of patience versus aggression. Seattle chose aggression. Ford’s sacrifice fly didn’t need to clear anyone’s head; it needed only to stay deep enough. It did.

Castillo earned the win in relief, steady after the Lugo jab and efficient enough to let the offense swing last. Sammy Peralta took the loss for Los Angeles, tagged with the final sequence that started with Polanco and ended with Ford.

Two nights of chaos have shown Seattle’s resourcefulness in tight spaces. Wednesday, it was Leo Rivas ending a 13-inning marathon with a two-run shot against the Cardinals. Thursday, it was a 21-year-old catching prospect turned pinch-hitter finding the outfield grass at the right time. The Mariners are the first team to play back-to-back games of at least 12 innings since MLB introduced the automatic runner in 2020, a quirk that underscores how unusual, and unforgiving, these games can be.

The home cooking has helped. Since the Trade Deadline, Seattle has taken 17 of 20 at T-Mobile Park. The staff has fed on that energy—Miller’s whiffs, Muñoz’s gearshift, the revolving door of middle relievers landing big outs—and the lineup has found enough two-strike contact to turn singles into life preservers.

Manager Scott Servais pushed the right buttons late, saving Ford for a moment that needed fresh eyes and a simple plan. No one will confuse a sacrifice fly with a moonshot, but in September, style points don’t matter. Product does. Ford delivered product.

• Sixth straight win for Seattle, matching their longest streak since the break.
• Back-to-back walk-off wins, both in extra innings.
• Bryce Miller: career-high 11 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.
• Mike Trout: 399th career home run, ending a 29-game homer drought; 34th at T-Mobile Park.
• Seattle: 17 wins in its last 20 home games.
• First MLB home run for Angels infielder Logan Davidson.

What it means for the AL West race

Tying Houston this late means every inning now carries playoff weight. Seattle didn’t just survive a trap game after an emotional series; they banked a win on an off-night from their starter’s command and a late deficit in extras. That’s the kind of win you circle in a clubhouse because it echoes into the off day and beyond.

The standings situation is tight enough to compress choices. With Texas two games back of both Seattle and Houston, there’s no breathing room. The Mariners’ recent surge has been built on run prevention—high-strikeout starts that shrink innings, plus a bullpen that can miss bats in traffic. Thursday’s script fit that profile, even with the hiccups. Miller’s 11 punchouts turned contact into a luxury for the Angels. When it vanished, the bullpen handled triage without letting the game detonate.

Ford’s emergence matters beyond one swing. He’s long been praised for plate discipline and timing—traits that usually take time to show up in the big leagues. Getting something productive in a leverage spot from a fresh call-up changes how opposing managers plan late-game matchups. It also gives Seattle a credible right-handed bat to deploy when the middle infield or catcher spot comes up with runners aboard.

Crawford remains the tone-setter. Three RBIs, the tying knock in the 11th, and steady defense keep him at the center of everything Seattle is trying to do—extend innings, steal an extra base on contact, and keep a lid on mistakes. Rodríguez’s two-run double was classic Julio: early-count aggression and lift to the gaps. When those two click at the same time, Seattle’s run-scoring math improves in a hurry.

The Angels, for their part, didn’t wilt. Trout’s swing changed the game twice—on the scoreboard in the fifth and in the atmosphere in the 10th, when Muñoz needed his best slider to keep him in the yard and the runner glued to third. Davidson’s first homer, Lugo’s go-ahead single in the 12th, and a bullpen that mostly held up all point to a club still shaping its identity while dealing with the churn of a long season.

Zoom out, and you can see why Seattle’s approach in extras matters. The automatic runner rule forces teams to weigh bunts and manufactured offense against the power of a single clean swing. The Mariners chose swings both nights—Rivas’s homer Wednesday, Polanco’s gapper and Ford’s fly on Thursday—and got rewarded. That aggressiveness can backfire, but at home, with a bullpen throwing zeros, it can also keep a defense on its heels.

The rotation alignment should help the rest of the series. Seattle lines up right-hander Luis Castillo for Friday, a stability play in a week that’s already asked a lot of relievers. The Angels are set to counter with a lefty, setting up another righty-heavy configuration for Seattle’s lineup and another night in which the first three innings could dictate everything.

September is about stacking outcomes. A walk-off in the 13th, a walk-off in the 12th, a tie for first. That’s stacking. And for a Seattle club that’s spent much of the summer trying to erase ground, the margin between hosting a postseason series and boarding a plane for a win-or-go-home game can come down to a single pitch like Ford’s—hit just far enough to be perfect.