Paul Goldschmidt. Pedro Severino. Jorge Soler. And Jorge Polanco.

One of the strangest murderer’s rows in baseball that have the distinct honor of hitting two home runs off Detroit Tigers pitcher Tarik Skubal in the same game.

Those first three names did so in a one-month window in 2021, Skubal’s first full season in the majors.

Polanco did so Sunday night for the Seattle Mariners in a crucial Game 2 of the ALDS that led to the Mariners tying up the series with a 3-2 win.

Seattle is now 3-0 in games this season where Skubal starts, something no other team in the league can claim. Every team that’s faced him multiple times has lost at least one of the games he started.

Even though Skubal pitched seven innings with nine strikeouts and his only runs were on the pair of solo homers to Polanco, it’s meaningful to the Mariners they can contend with the likely back-to-back AL Cy Young Award winner.

“It just gives us confidence going in each day, no matter who is on the mound,” Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who scored Sunday’s game-winning run off reliever Kyle Finnegan, said. “It’s that time of year you know you’re going to get some good arms whether it’s the bullpen or starters. We know we have our work cut out for us…At least one of us was able to put together a few at-bats today.”

Polanco admitted on the FS1 broadcast after the game, he was really just trying to wait out the right pitch to hit, stay in the middle and try to do damage on one of the hardest throwers in the league.

He chased in his first at-bat, but waited to catch a slider and a sinker in the middle of the zone his next two plate appearances to take Skubal deep.

“He’s such a good baseball player. He’s a grinder,” Seattle’s Julio Rodríguez said. “All year long he’s been having great at-bats, coming clutch in so many situations.

“And today to have hit two homers against the best pitcher in the game right now, it’s awesome. There is not enough words to describe what he means to the team and everything that he has done to this year.”

The rest of the Seattle lineup only tagged Skubal for three hits and a walk and otherwise could’ve been on the wrong end of a 2-0 series if not for the big hits from Polanco.

Now the series turns to Detroit for the next two games. Either team could end it with consecutive victories at Comerica Park, but if it heads to Game 5 back in Seattle, that also means Skubal takes the mound again.

The Tigers will surely still bet on their ace to be lethal in a high-leverage situation like that after having such limited mistakes.

“You don’t see the same guy get good swings against Tarik very often,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “There was a few pitches that I think he didn’t execute. But all in all, he did a tremendous job of keeping us in the game and keeping it right where it was…We missed a couple opportunities, but I thought Tarik did his part.”

But, the Mariners might be the team with the biggest edge on Skubal right now, with a heightened confidence that they can be the exception throughout his second award-worthy season.

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