SEATTLE — The Seattle Mariners were going into the first of a three-game series against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday off one of the most impressive series wins of the season.

The Mariners took two-of-three games from National League contenders — the Philadelphia Phillies — and the offense looked like it had taken the necessary strides that fans were clamoring for.

Unfortunately that momentum didn’t carry over as a struggling rookie had a career night against the M’s.

Detroit beat Seattle 4-2 on Tuesday off the best start in the fledgling career of pitcher Keider Montero. The Tigers rookie had a season-high eight strikeouts and allowed one earned run on four hits in six innings pitched.

The loss dropped the Mariners to 59-55 on the season and decreased their lead in the American League West down to half a game over the Houston Astros.

“Coming in — I knew this series was going to have its challenges,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said in a postgame interview Tuesday. “Detroit has played a lot of close games this year and they got some young guys that are getting after it. … They put four groundball singles together in the fifth and that happens once in a while. … We were ahead in the count most of the night, didn’t walk anybody.”

Seattle starter Luis Castillo had a solid night and registered another quality start. He finished with nine strikeouts and no walks but allowed three earned runs and eight hits in six innings pitched.

The Tigers put their first run on the board courtesy of an RBI single from Parker Meadows in the top of the fourth.

In the fifth — Colt Keith added to the lead with a single (that was originally ruled an error by first baseman Luke Raley) and then Wenceel Perez brought in one more.

Raley made up for his miscue in the bottom of the fifth with a solo home run to center field. It was his second homer in four games. Raley’s long ball cut the Tigers’ lead down to 3-1.

Castillo was able to get through the last inning of his start without any further damage. Once Trent Thornton took the mound in the eighth — Meadows blasted a 415-foot solo home run to right field to give Detroit its fourth and final run of the game.

The Mariners had one last rally attempt in them in the bottom of the ninth. With two outs and Cade Marlowe on second — a fly ball hit by Jorge Polanco fell between Meadows (the center fielder) and Perez (the right fielder). That hit brought home Cade Marlowe for the eventual final of 4-2.

The Tigers made a pitching change and pinch-hitter Mitch Garver struck out to end the game.

“Mitch is going to continue to play,” Servais said. “He’ll play against left-handed pitching. His numbers against lefties are really good — It’s a well-above-league average OPS. He has had success against lefties so he’ll be in there (Wednesday). Didn’t go his way tonight. It’ll be a good challenge against him tomorrow and hopefully he has some good at-bats.”

Seattle will be back at 6:40 p.m. PT on Wednesday against American League Cy Young candidate Tarik Skubal. George Kirby will get the start for the Mariners.

MARINERS OFFENSE ON THE UPSWING: The Seattle Mariners are averaging almost two home runs a game and are 6-3 since getting swept by the Los Angeles Angels fans on July 24. CLICK HERE

MARINERS RELEASE PITCHING MATCHUPS AGAINST DETROIT: The Seattle Mariners are set to begin a three game series against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday. CLICK HERE

PHILLIES SHUT OUT MARINERS: The Philadelphia Phillies scored five runs in the eighth inning and starter Zack Wheeler had nine strikeouts in eight innings pitched in the series finale against the Seattle Mariners on Sunday. CLICK HERE

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If you read the New York Giants media’s take on Day 1 of joint practices with the Detroit Lions, most believed New York—at the very least—hung with the gritty Lions.

But the tone out of New Jersey was a little different for Tuesday’s practice. While things certainly remained high-intensity, it certainly sounds like the Lions may have taken the edge back on Day 2.

Let’s take a closer look at observations from Tuesday’s practice by looking around the Giants webosphere and seeing what they had to say. Before we do that, here’s where you can find some of the local Detroit coverage of practice;

And here are some resources from the Giants perspective:

Lions defense rebounds

It was a bit disheartening to hear that the Lions defensive line struggled on Monday against a Giants improved—but still rebuilding—offensive line. However, it sounds like Detroit’s defensive front bounced back in a decent way.

These tweets were corroborated from Ed Valentine’s observations.

“The Giants’ offensive line was a bit leakier today than on Monday, and there weren’t as many big completions,” Valentine wrote.

By no means was it a dominant day from the Lions defensive line, and a few Giants reporters suggested New York starters had the edge during one-on-ones, but it was a step in the right direction.

The Lions still had their troubles with rookie receiver Malik Nabers, but here’s you can see both a loss and a win from rookie cornerback Terrion Arnold, the latter of which resulted in a big scrum and punches thrown by Kerby Joseph and Nabers:

Lions offense has a productive day, particularly on the ground

Justin Rogers of Detroit Football Network called the Lions’ day of offense “quietly efficient,” Essentially, not as many big plays as Monday, but effective nonetheless. That seems to be the general consensus from Giants writers, as well. Take this recap from Nick Falato.

“Ed and I both got to witness the red zone periods and the Giants defense did surrender too many quality plays against Jared Goff, David Montgomery, and Jahmyr Gibbs,” Falato wrote.

Detroit’s running game—which ranked fifth in yardage last year—sounds like it has picked up where it left off.

“The Lions quickly scored in the red zone period and seemed to run the football with ease against the Giants’ first-team defense,” Falato said.

On Monday, Jameson Williams found the end zone at least twice, and coach Dan Campbell was encouraged by his performance.

“We have high standards, but it was good to see, it was definitely good to see,” Campbell said.

Tuesday, he had another nifty play where the Lions got him in space thanks to some pre-snap motion:

Perhaps most importantly, the Lions were able to take care of the ball during all of practice. Per Dan Salomone of Giants.com, the Lions didn’t turn the ball over a single time during team reps of practice.

More kicking struggles

This is not an observation from the Giants’ point of view, but it’s certainly worth including here. Per Colton Pouncy of The Athletic, Jake Bates went just 6-of-9 on Tuesday, although two of those were from 50 yards: