The Los Angeles Angels showed magic yet again on their home field on Fri. July 25, 2025 as they pulled off their 7th walk-off win of the season with an epic ending that featured a player who had his first ever Bobblehead giveaway along with the first walk-off hit of his career. The Halos were in desperate need of breaking a four-game losing streak that was plunging them low in the American League Wild Card standings and on the back end of a packed mix of teams who are in relative contention for those three Wild Card spots. For this series that begins a long 13-game homestand, the Angels are looking to gain ground on one of their division rivals in the Seattle Mariners, whom they have had big and clutch wins against over the past few years. Those wins usually have done little to help the Halos’ prospects of staying in the race, but they have spoiled Seattle and have robbed the Mariners from getting into the postseason. These close losses tend to loom large for Seattle, which currently holds the second AL Wild Card spot as they are sandwiched in between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. So, this four-game series between the Angels and Mariners could have huge implications for the rest of the regular season in the American League.

This game comes a night after the Halos failed to come through in the late innings the night before against Seattle as they looked to comeback from a relatively small deficit. Down by two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Angels would load up the bases with a fielder’s choice that Luis Rengifo reached on, an infield single by Zach Neto with two outs, and a four-ball walk drawn by Mike Trout. Nolan Schanuel had a chance to have his third walk-off of the season, but he swing at the first pitch thrown by Mariners closer Andrés Muñoz and the ball was hit well towards left field. But Randy Arozarena was right there to make the catch and end the game with a 4-2 win for Seattle. The loss was brutal for the Halos, who lost their fourth straight game by a close margin. After being swept in three tight games on the road against the New York Mets, the Angels desperately need to have a successful stretch of wins on their home field over these next couple of weeks. They needed a bounce back win in the worst possible way on a Friday night home game.

Entering their 104th game of the 2025 season, the Angels were five and a half games back of the final Wild Card spot held by Boston and six games back of Seattle. Several teams stand in front of them, as the Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, Cleveland Guardians, Minnesota Twins and Kansas City Royals are all ahead in the standings currently. The Angels had a chance to gain ground on Seattle and a few of those teams in the Wild Card mix on Friday night, when there would be another giveaway to the first 25,000 fans who walked through the gates at Angel Stadium. But this wouldn’t be any ordinary giveaway item, it would be a bobblehead of one of the top young stars for the Angels. Was it Logan O’Hoppe that would have a Bobblehead? No, he’s already had two of those. Nolan Schanuel also had a Bobblehead giveaway earlier this season in June. So, that only meant one guy could be getting a Bobblehead on this Friday night in July. It was Zach Neto, the star shortstop for the Halos that has been on a trajectory to set new offensive records for a shortstop in franchise history. Neto’s defensive flair is pretty good as well, which is why the Bobblehead of him is one that portrays him making a sliding catch on the field. Plenty of fans got to the stadium early to get the bobblehead for themselves before supplies ran out and there were long wait lines for fans to get through the security scanners and to the front gates to have their tickets scanned. After that, they received their Neto bobbleheads in the carefully-placed boxes that they were in. I only wish that I could be there, but I’m not eager to get a Bobblehead of any Angels player because I’m afraid it might curse the team’s luck. I have two Mike Trout bobbleheads and I haven’t used them as much due to Trout’s time on the injured list over the past few seasons. I had a couple of Shohei Ohtani bobbleheads as well that I’ve put away in storage due to Shohei no longer being an Angel. And I received a Ben Joyce bobblehead earlier this season in May, which was after Joyce suffered inflammation in his right shoulder that has sidelined him for the remainder of this year. So, my luck with bobbleheads hasn’t been the best over the years, which is why I didn’t want to go get a Neto one because he’s already been through tough times with an injury. I just decided to stay home and watch the game on TV, where I saw that the trio of broadcasters on FanDuel Sports Network handed out Neto Bobblehead boxes at the home plate gate pregame. It would have been epic to meet Patrick O’Neal, Mark Gubicza and Erica Weston in-person for once, but I see them almost every night(with the exception of Patty O) on my TV screen, so their presence is constant throughout the season.

In this game, José Soriano was the starting pitcher for the Angels, while Bryan Woo was the starter for the Mariners. The game got started with a familiar scene of Julio Rodriguez owning the Halos, in which the young star center fielder hit a solo home run in the top of the 1st inning. That was already the 2nd homer for J-Rod in the series, as he wielded the celebratory trident that Seattle uses after a homer is hit by one of their players. Thankfully, Soriano didn’t allow any more damage and got through the 1st inning smoothly enough. In the bottom of the 1st inning, the Angels answered back with Zach Neto getting a leadoff single to start off his bobblehead game in style. After Trout struck out, Nolan Schanuel walked to have runners on first and second base. Taylor Ward struck out swinging on the next at-bat, but Jo Adell would come through by belting the ball down the left field line, with Neto and Schanuel both coming around to score to give the Halos an early 2-1 lead. After the 2-run double by Adell, Yoán Moncada lined out to third to end the inning, but the Angels had gotten some early runs for the benefit of Soriano, who was in need of a good start at home.

Soriano got himself out of a tight jam in the top of the 2nd, while the Halos bats failed to bring in Logan O’Hoppe, who hit a leadoff double to start the inning. The game was a pitcher’s duel throughout, with Soriano and Woo doing well to hold the other’s lineup in check. After five solid innings, Soriano was in line for the win. But a lack of run support ruined that prospect for him, as in the top of the sixth inning Julio Rodriguez led off and blasted a ball to left field that made its way into the seats. Two home runs for J-Rod in the game and already three in the series. The game was tied at two apiece and thankfully Soriano didn’t give up any more damage as he got a couple of strikeouts and a fly out to end his night with six solid innings pitched. Meanwhile Bryan Woo continued to pitch well, holding the Halos’ bats in check. In the top of the 7th, Brock Burke came in to pitch and he would have a relatively clean inning. In the bottom of the 7th, after “Crazy Train” was played in tribute to the recently-deceased Ozzy Osbourne, Woo’s outing ended after he walked Moncada to start out the inning. Eduardo Bazardo came in to pitch for the Mariners and he retired the bottom third of the Angels’ order that now featured LaMonte Wade Jr as a pinch-hitter for Chris Taylor, who exited the game after making a diving catch that might have sprained his wrist. Wade would play in right field in place of Taylor in the top of the 8th, when Reid Detmers entered the game and ended up striking out three batters to hold Seattle scoreless.

After an unsuccessful bottom of the 8th inning for the top of the order against Mariners reliever Matt Brash, the ninth inning started and Kenley Jansen came in to yet again appear in a non-save situation. Jansen got the first hitter to ground out to first base, got the second batter to ground out to second base and was able to have the final hitter ground out to third base in a successful 1-2-3 inning. In the bottom of the ninth, the Halos had a chance to walk it off against Andrés Muñoz again, as the Mariners closer appeared in his non-save situation. Muñoz was less shaky this time, as he got Ward to strike out looking, Adell to ground out, and made Moncada swing and miss to end the ninth inning. This game was now going into extra innings, where the Halos had much better results earlier in the season but in a stretch from late June to early July had gone 1-4 in extra inning games. Two of those losses were on the road, as the Toronto Blue Jays had back-to-back walk-off wins against the Angels at the Rogers Center. The “toast runner” for Seattle would be Ben Williamson, who would make his way over to second base as a new Angels’ pitcher was warming up. Ryan Zeferjahn was now in the game in a high-stakes situation, as he needed to prevent the Mariners from getting the lead with that ugly runner at second base. A defensive change was made as well, with Kevin Newman entering the game to play third base, meaning that he would be the automatic runner in the bottom of the 10th inning in place of Moncada.

The top of the tenth started not so well for Zeferjahn, who walked second baseman Cole Young and then threw two out of zone pitches to J.P Crawford, who was trying to put down a bunt that would advance both runners a base forward. This prompted Ray Montgomery to come out of the dugout and have his own version of a “Wash Magic” visit, as Montgomery discussed strategy with Zeferjahn and the infielders. He calmed down the nerves of the young reliever, as a potentially clutch defensive play could be in order if the bunt by Crawford went far enough past the mound. The next pitch was squarely in the strike zone and Crawford pulled his bat back. On a 2-1 count, Crawford offered again and the ball went off his bat this time, but it went hard off his bat, breezing by Zeferjahn and towards the third base side. Newman couldn’t make the catch as the ball went backwards, with the baserunners for the Mariners running. Williamson was running towards third base, which Zeferjahn had to cover due to Newman’s maneuver and Neto would run over to field the ball with his glove. Neto then scooped the ball forward to Zeferjahn, who had his back foot on the base and he made the catch before Williamson slid in. It was a force out at third base and a fantastic defensive play by Neto, who performed a big magic trick to get the first out of the top of the 10th. This inning was far from over, as the two stud hitters for Seattle were set to bat. Julio Rodriguez came up next, looking to provide the go-ahead score in a game where his bat had provided the only runs of the game for his team. After taking two pitches for balls, Rodriguez swung at a cutter thrown by Zeferjahn and the ball was hit weakly to left field, where Ward caught it for the second out of the inning. The biggest at-bat of the game was set to occur and it would be Cal Raleigh coming up to bat.

With the “Big Dumper” as his nickname, Raleigh has hit 39 home runs so far this season, putting him in the major league lead for big flies and he is on a trajectory to set the all-time record for most home runs by a catcher in recorded baseball history. But the Halos are trying to slow down that pace in this series and this at-bat was a huge one. Zeferjahn would engage in a long at-bat with Raleigh, with a 1-2 count going full and on the sixth pitch of the at-bat, a four-seam fastball was thrown in the lower heart of the plate for strike three. The top half of the inning was over and the Angels had prevented the Mariners from scoring. With clutch defense from Neto and impressive pitching from Zeferjahn, this game remained tied 2-2 and the Halos now had a chance to walk it off in the bottom of the 10th inning.

Kevin Newman would represent the game-winning run at second base as the toast runner, with O’Hoppe, Wade and Rengifo due up to bat. The new reliever in the game for Seattle was Casey Legumina, who would try to force this game to an 11th inning. O’Hoppe came up first, looking to be an o’hero again. But he flew out to deep center field, as Rodriguez caught the ball, however that meant Newman could attempt to advance to third base. And that is what he did, as Newman sprinted and slid head-first safely at third. Now, with the game-winning run 90 feet away, a ball hit into the outfield deep enough or well enough could win the game. LaMonte Wade Jr had a chance to win it with his bat. This at-bat was huge, with it starting with a strike in the heart of the plate. Then, on the second pitch, the ball hit the inside corner of the strike zone, but it wasn’t called a strike. Instead it was ruled a ball by home plate umpire Mike Muchlinski, who was a real “class act” in this game. That ball one call would loom large as Wade did well to force the count full and then he walked on the sixth pitch of the at-bat. Now with runners on the corners and Luis Rengifo coming up, a potential squeeze play could be put on to bring Newman home. But a double play was also a possibility, so Rengifo had to be careful. Unfortunately, safety squeeze plays are more rare these days due to them being practiced less and only being able to be executed by a few select players who actually know how to bunt and run fast from third. Rengifo would not put down a bunt for a potential squeeze play and instead swung at the first pitch and fouled it off. He took the next two pitches thrown by Legumina for balls, then he hit a changeup that stayed fair on the left side of the field. Unfortunately, Newman had chosen to go for it and run home when the ball was field by Williamson, who got Newman into a rundown and Newman would be tagged out. Now with runners at first and second with two outs, the Halos needed a clutch hit. And the perfect guy was coming up to try and deliver it.

Neto was coming up to bat with the Angels down to their last out in the bottom of the 10th. Legumina threw the first pitch and it was a ball, then on the second pitch something amazing happened. Neto hit the sweeper pitch on the field and it rolled to the right, dribbling past the second baseman Cole Young, who tried to get the ball with his glove but it kicked off his glove and into the outfield. LaMonte Wade Jr came sprinting home and it was game over. The Angels had walked off the Mariners for like the zillionith time ever and Neto was the hero on his bobblehead night. Neto’s teammates ganged up on him and celebrated the feat, with the game being won in epic fashion. The Angels had broken their losing streak and finally achieved their 50th win of the season. The 7th walk-off win of 2025 and sixth extra inning victory for the Halos, who have definitely learned how to win close and tight games this season. Neto was doused with Powerade by his fellow young star teammates with bobbleheads in Logan O’Hoppe and Nolan Schanuel during his post-game interview with Erica Weston, which ended with an enthusiastic “Go Halos!” to the fans in attendance at the stadium.

This win now has the Angels at five games back of Seattle and four and a half games back of the final Wild Card spot currently held by the Red Sox. Winning this series will be paramount for this team of young stars and veterans, as they have mostly steered clear of major injuries to their biggest stars. With the exception of some role players being hurt with stints on the injured list required and a couple of major injuries to the bullpen, the Angels are more healthy at this point in the season than they have been in so many years. This is their opportunity to make a statement and finally eclipse the coveted .500 plateau to be a legitimate contender. Let’s hope this epic win fuels a wave of wins that can propel the Halos into contention, regardless of their intents at the trade deadline at the end of this month. But one thing is for sure, Zach Neto sure had a hell of a night for his bobblehead giveaway and his first walk-off hit of his big league career was the perfect cherry on top for him and the Angels.