Mariners, level atop AL West, pursue another win over Angels

Harry Ford and the Seattle Mariners enjoyed a memorable moment Friday night.

The rookie catcher got his first career RBI when his pinch-hit sacrifice fly lifted the Mariners to a 12th-inning win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday.

Seattle won its sixth game in a row and pulled even with the Houston Astros atop the American League West. The Mariners will take the field as a first-place team when the four-game series with the Angels continues on Friday.

Ford's clutch moment with the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the 12th sealed a 7-6 decision.

Ford was tackled by teammate Luke Raley at first base before Luis Castillo crowned him with an upside-down pail of Dubble Bubble chewing gum. Cal Raleigh doused Ford with a water cooler and later got him with a towel full of shaving cream during a postgame interview.

Just think what they will do when Ford gets his first hit.

"Harry put together just a great at-bat," Seattle manager Dan Wilson said. "Going other way, getting the ball in the air ... you know he's going to get confidence from that."

It was the second consecutive night a September call-up provided the decisive blow in extra innings for the Mariners (79-68). Leo Rivas' leadoff homer in the bottom of the 13th gave the Mariners a 4-2 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday.

"What a great organization from top to bottom. For Harry to be prepared for a moment like this ... he handled it like a pro," Wilson said. "Player development does a great job and gets these guys ready for the big leagues."

Ford, who was making his first plate appearance in Seattle, admitted he didn't get a chance to take any swings in the batting cage to prepare because he thought he'd likely be entering the game as a pinch runner.

"I just went up there," Ford said in a postgame interview on Root Sports. "It was a fastball middle, just went the other way. That was it. It's simple."

The ending overshadowed the 399th career home run by Los Angeles' Mike Trout and the first for Logan Davidson. The Angels (69-78) had a two-game winning streak snapped.

Trout went deep for the first time since Aug. 6, snapping a career-high homerless drought of 125 plate appearances.

"I was thinking about it for a little bit in the beginning," Trout said. "But now I'm just trying to put good swings on the ball. I know it's going to come. I'm not trying to go up there and try to hit a home run. My whole career is just putting good swings on balls and they've gone over the fence."

Angels left-hander Yusei Kikuchi (6-11, 4.18 ERA), who pitched for Seattle from 2019-21, is scheduled to take the mound on Friday against Castillo (9-8, 3.95).

Kikuchi has lost his past three starts and his past four decisions overall. He lasted just two innings, giving up seven runs, in a 17-4 defeat to the visiting Athletics on Saturday.

Kikuchi is 1-2 with a 1.29 ERA in five career starts against the Mariners. He took a 4-2 defeat against Seattle on July 24 in Anaheim, Calif., when he yielded three runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings.

Castillo snapped a two-game losing streak in an 18-2 victory in Atlanta on Saturday, when he gave up one run on four hits in six innings. He is 5-2 with a 2.97 ERA in 10 lifetime starts against the Angels, though one of those defeats came June 6 at Anaheim. The right-hander permitted six runs (four earned) on eight hits in five innings during that contest.

--Field Level Media