On Thur, Sept 25, the Los Angeles Angels faced the Seattle Mariners in the first game of a regular season concluding four-game series at T-Mobile Park. The Angels had not won a game in Seattle entering this series since Apr 2025 as they had an active nine-game losing streak near the Puget Sound. After losing three games in a row, the Halos were only two losses away from achieving their first 100-loss season in team history. Meanwhile, the Mariners had been eliminated mathematically from postseason contention earlier in the day when the Texas Rangers defeated the New York Mets. The Angels had Grayson Rodriguez make his final start of an otherwise up-and-down season, while Seattle countered with Bryan Woo, who had a good career record against the Halos entering this matchup.
The game started with Woo and Rodriguez pitching relatively clean first innings. In the top of the second, after striking out the first two batters, Woo gave up a two-out single to Josh Lowe, who had some good hitting numbers against the Mariners in a three-game series in Anaheim this past week. Christian Moore was up next to bat and he hit a 0-1 fastball from Woo to center field, where Julio Rodríguez was unable to catch the ball. The ball dropped in as Lowe was between second and third base and Lowe sprinted to home plate for the score. An RBI single for Moore, who was the hero of the previous win for the Halos against the Minnesota Twins. In the bottom of the second, Seattle responded as G. Rod walked Cal Raleigh and then J-Rod came up and hit a two-run shot to center field. Rodriguez unfortunately walked Josh Naylor and Cole Young got a single, but he finally got some help with a double play that Lazaro Montes hit into. However, with a runner at third base, Rodriguez surrendered an RBI single to Leo Rivas and the Mariners were up 3-1.
In the third inning, the Angels did nothing offensively while Rodriguez pitched a cleaner inning after giving up a leadoff double to Randy Arozarena. In the bottom of the fourth, Rodriguez escaped another runners on base jam with a double play turned by Vaughn Grissom and Zach Neto. In the top of the fifth, the Halos’ bats woke up again as Lowe hit a double to lead off the inning and a wild sequence occurred when Moore swung and missed at a 1-2 curveball in the dirt and Raleigh attempted to throw the ball to first base to complete the strikeout. But Naylor was positioned well away from the bag and he had to run to cover the base and by the time Raleigh made the throw, the ball sailed over Naylor’s glove and into right field. Moore advanced to second while Lowe went to third base as the wild pitch strikeout had been botched by Seattle. Bryce Teodosio came up next and hit a ball to Young, who was playing back and the Mariners surrendered an RBI on a groundout with Lowe coming home. Neto came up to bat next and he hit a sinker from Woo out to left center field. The ball dropped in and Moore scored to tie the game up on Neto’s 75th RBI of the season. The Angels were unable to break the tied score as Wade Meckler got a two-out single, but Grissom flew out to J-Rod to conclude the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, G-Rod walked J.P Crawford to start the inning, but got Arozarena and Dominic Canzone to ground out, with Crawford advancing a base on both groundouts. Raleigh was up next and G-Rod engaged in a long nine-pitch at-bat against the “Big Dumper” that ended in a walk, which was the fifth one of the night from the first-year Halo hurler. During an at-bat against J-Rod, G-Rod threw a wild pitch on an 0-2 count that kicked away from Moisés Ballesteros and Crawford came home to score. It was a 4-3 Seattle lead, but G-Rod won the battle of the Rodriguezes by getting J-Rod to ground out to end the inning.
In the top of the sixth, Ballesteros walked on a full count to start the inning and following a pop-out by Denzer Guzman, Lowe got hit by a full count sweeper on his back foot. With two runners on base and Moore coming up to bat, Dan Wilson sought to take Woo out of the game. But Woo convinced Wilson that he could stay in the game to finish the inning. So, Wilson kept Woo in and he faced Moore, who worked a 3-1 count. Woo threw a fastball that Moore hit out to deep left center field and the ball barely missed going out of the yard, but it hit the top of the fence. Ballesteros came in to score and Lowe was right behind him, with Lowe beating out a throw from Crawford to Raleigh to give the Angels the lead back. Woo was taken out of the game after his plea to stay in backfired, with Michael Rucker coming in for Woo and getting Teodosio and Neto out to end the inning.
Sammy Peralta came in to pitch for the Halos and he threw three clean innings in a row while only giving up two singles. In the top of the eighth, the Angels were seeking an add-on run and they got it on an RBI single by Teodosio off Cooper Criswell that scored Denzer Guzman, who was on base due to a leadoff walk. In the bottom of the ninth, Ryan Watson entered to pitch with a two-run lead and he got Montes to strike out, Michael Arroyo to fly out to Moore in shallow center field and Crawford on a game-ending strikeout to secure his fourth save of the season.
The Angels had won their 61st game of the season and their first one in Seattle since Apr 28, 2025. With three of their wins in this month of September coming against the now-eliminated Mariners, the Halos are only two wins away from avoiding 100 losses. Rodriguez concludes his season with a 5-8 record and 85 strikeouts in 20 starts. Reid Detmers and Ryan Johnson will make their final starts of the season in the next two games against Seattle and their presence on the mound might be the deciding factor in the Halos not losing 100 games. With production from the bottom of the lineup, which hit 6-for-11 with five RBIs and four runs scored, the Angels showed their strength and resilience. Moore matched his career high with three RBIs and he is looking like a possible candidate to be an Opening Day starter at second base in 2027.
The Halos have three games left in this tough 2026 season and whether they avoid 100 losses or not is beside the point. A new era will begin in Anaheim under new ownership and front office leadership next season and a potential rebuild could lead to a contending team in a supremely weak AL West division. For now, seeking a season-concluding series win over the Mariners will be a satisfying end to an unsatisfactory season.
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