Jorge Polanco had Mariners at-bat of the year vs. Tigers ace Tarik Skubal

On a Sunday night when the Seattle Mariners needed someone, anyone, outside the headliners to punch back in Game 2 of the ALDS, Jorge Polanco answered with the kind of plate appearances that can tilt a postseason. T-Mobile Park had been tight, waiting for a crack in Tarik Skubal’s armor, and the Tigers’ ace wasn’t offering much. Then Polanco stepped in and brought the place to a boil, turning a chess match of pitch-to-pitch adjustments into the loudest swings of the series.

This is exactly why contenders preach depth all summer. The Mariners have the MVP chatter at catcher and a center fielder fresh off a second 30–30 season, but October belongs to the role players who win knife fights in the zone. Skubal arrived looking every bit the ace. Electric fastball, disappearing changeups, and a season-long résumé that limited the long ball. That’s the backdrop Polanco walked into. What followed was both ruthless and beautifully simple: stick to a plan, refuse the pitcher’s pitch, and wait for the mistake.

Mariners even ALDS after Jorge Polanco wins a chess match with Tigers’ Tarik Skubal

Take a look at his second homer on that middle-middle heater:

Yes, it’s a pitch elite hitters should crush, but context matters, the swing only existed because of the discipline before it. Skubal jumped ahead 1–2, then tried to bury two changeups; Polanco spit on both to work it full, 3–2. With the count loaded, Skubal had to come back over the plate. Polanco didn’t cheat — he stayed through the middle, got the challenge heater at 3–2, and hammered it. A designed outcome, not a lucky break.

Polanco explained it like a hitter who’d seen the picture in full.

“We all know what he does,” he said of Skubal. “He’s got pretty good pitches, he’s got a pretty good fastball. I came up there just trying to get a good pitch to hit, just hit to the middle of the field and put it straight on.”

Then the part every hitting coach frames and pins to the clubhouse corkboard:

“I was feeling pretty good. I didn’t know what was coming… I just have a good approach, stay to the middle so I can recognize the second that it starts.”

Against an ace, recognition speed is everything. Polanco had it, and the swing was the punctuation.

The truth is, this wasn’t a one-night mirage. From the right side against lefties this season, Polanco was a problem: .308/.348/.548 with an .896 OPS — the best of his career (excluding his 2015 cup of coffee). And zoom out to the full season and you see the rebound arc the Mariners banked on when they insisted role players would decide their ceiling: .265/.326/.495 with 26 homers and 78 RBIs, a firm rebuttal to anyone who wondered if 2024’s knee issues would linger. He had some post-surgery naggles early, sure, but the swing speed, the adjustability, and the plan all held. This is exactly the kind of production teams crave behind their stars.

If Seattle is going to steal this series on the road, they’ll need more plate appearances that look like Polanco’s — calm eyes, a stubborn heart, and damage only when the pitcher concedes the middle. The Tigers will counter with noise and velocity at Comerica, but disciplined plans travel.

Call it the at-bat of the year for the Mariners because of what it did in the moment; call it the blueprint for what has to happen next because of what it represents. Either way, Seattle heads to Detroit even, and Jorge Polanco just showed the rest of the lineup how to win a heavyweight round against an ace.