SEATTLE —It ended — and started — with a bunt.

That’s how Mariners center fielder Jarrod Dyson ended Justin Verlander’s perfect game in the sixth inning.

That’s how the Mariners’ comeback started.

That’s how weird baseball can be, how quickly it can change.

The Mariners beat the Detroit Tigers, 7-5, to get back to .500 (37-37) after winning their fourth straight game. And they did it by going from lifeless and lost against Verlander to surging and clutch after Dyson’s bunt.

“It just shows you the fight we have in here, man,” Dyson said. “We don’t give up. We don’t give in.”

He added, “When you’re rolling, you’re rolling. That’s just how it is.”

So first, the bunt.

When Dyson stepped to the plate with one out in the sixth inning, Verlander had faced the minimum: 16 batters up, 16 batters down, and he had struck out 10 of those batters.

Plus, Dyson had just seven hits in 32 career at-bats against Verlander.

“I’m not just going to go up there and keep hacking at him,” Dyson said. “I know how me and his matchups have been in the past. He always wins the battle. So I just had to try to play my game.”

There’s an old-school thinking in some baseball circles that a player shouldn’t bunt to break up a no-hitter or perfect game. But bunting is a part of Dyson’s game, a tool he can call on.

And his team needed a base runner.

“I’d say I did my job,” Dyson said. “That’s what I’d say. I’m sure he didn’t like it. But at the same time, he looked comfortable on the mound. He about blew our whole lineup away, so right there we’re not just going to keep swinging like that. I’ve got to play my game.”

Tigers manager Brad Ausmus made a similar point.

“That’s what Dyson does,” Ausmus said. “He uses his speed to get on base, and bunting for a base hit is one way to do it. It certainly got them going.”

So Dyson bunted, and he didn’t lay down just a good bunt. He laid down a perfect bunt to break up the perfect game. That was very clearly the moment the game turned on its head.

“I’m not going to let him dictate what I’m going to do,” Dyson said. “I’m going to go out there and continue to play my game.”

Said Verlander, “It was a perfect bunt. It’s part of his game. I don’t think it was too late to be in a situation to bunt, especially with that being a major part of what he does. I really didn’t have any issue with it. It’s not like I got upset about it. It was just my first time out of the stretch and I lost some rhythm there.”

Verlander walked Mike Zunino. He gave up a bloop single to Jean Segura. Ben Gamel drove in Dyson with a hit, and Nelson Cruz drove in two more runs with a two-out double — the final batter Verlander faced.

“We were all talking about how we just needed somebody to get on,” Cruz said, “and we could change the way he was pitching.”

Dyson’s game-changing bunt avenged an uncharacteristic mistake in the sixth inning. With Miguel Cabrera on first, J.D. Martinez hit a fly ball to center. Cabrera froze, thinking Dyson was going to make the catch. Dyson didn’t reach the ball, so he threw to second, trying to get the force out.

He rushed the throw, and it skipped into the Tigers’ dugout, allowing the runners to advance. Both scored and Detroit took a 4-0 lead. “I was pretty upset about that,” Dyson said.

In the seventh inning, Mitch Haniger tied the score with a solo home run. After Segura and Gamel reached base, Robinson Cano drove them in with a double in the gap.

And Cruz delivered once more, this time a single to give the Mariners a 7-4 lead.

That erased what had been a better, if still up-and-down start, from James Paxton. Servais said Paxton’s “stuff” was much better than in his previous starts, but for the fourth straight start he allowed at least three runs in fewer than six innings.