Mariners take the lead in the AL West with a walk-off hit by rookie Harry Ford in the 12th inning

Before he even got his first hit in the big leagues, Mariners rookie Harry Ford had his first major league walk-off moment.

The recent call-up blasted a pinch-hit, walk-off sacrifice fly in the 12th inning to end a crazy 7-6 win over the Los Angeles Angels on Thursday night.

The Mariners' win puts them even with the Houston Astros at the top of the AL West.

Seattle's win was their sixth in a row and their second in a row in extra innings, when Leo Rivas hit the winning home run in the 13th inning to give the team a 4-2 triumph over the Cardinals. That was a surprise in and of itself, since it was Rivas' second career home run.

But Ford, whom the Mariners summoned up when rosters grew at the start of September, was an even less likely hero on Thursday. He was largely used as an emergency catcher off the bench after being picked in the first round.

But on Thursday, he was in a tough scenario because of a sequence of defensive substitutions made in extra innings that left him as the only player on the bench who could hit for what was then the pitcher's spot in the order.

Out of nowhere, the 22-year-old came up for his third major league at-bat with the bases loaded and no outs in a tie game. He didn't waste any time. He smashed the first pitch he saw from Sammy Peralta deep enough into right field for Jorge Polanco to tag up and score from third. The party began.

Ford is now officially 0-for-3 with an RBI in his first three MLB games. He was just as surprised as anyone else to receive the chance to hit the one RBI.

Ford told the Root Sports broadcast after the game, "Honestly, I was getting ready to pinch run." "I didn't think I was going to get to hit, but they told me I was, so I said, 'Let's do it.'"

It was a good ending to a game that had a lot of ups and downs. In the second inning, Seattle took a 4-0 lead, but the bats went cold after that, and the Angeles slowly closed the gap.

In the fifth inning, Mike Trout hit a solo home run that tied the game at 4–4. The score stayed that way until the 11th inning, when Taylor Ward's RBI single gave the Angels their first lead of the game, 5–4. In the bottom of the 11th, J.P. Crawford's single sent home the tying run for the Mariners.

The Dodgers scored again in the 12th, putting pressure on the Mariners to keep up in the bottom half. With a leadoff double that brought in the automatic runner, Polanco immediately made it 6-6. The Angels walked Eugenio Suárez on purpose, and Victor Robles got on base with a bunt base hit to load the bases for Ford.

There are still 15 games left, and Seattle and Houston are tied. The clubs will play three games against each other in Houston from September 19 to 21. This series will likely decide who wins the division.