ARLINGTON, Texas — Justyn-Henry Malloy saved the Detroit Tigers from embarrassment with the first hit and the first home run of his MLB career.

Malloy, who hadn't reached base safely in his first eight plate appearances, hit a solo home run to left-center field to begin the sixth inning of Wednesday's series finale at Globe Life Field, breaking up Texas Rangers right-hander José Ureña's perfect game.

The Tigers still lost, 9-1.

"He had good stuff tonight," Malloy said of Ureña. "He was really getting the ground balls that he wanted. He was executing pitches, getting ahead in counts. I just wanted to stack a good at-bat together and hopefully get something rolling so we could score some runs."

Thanks to Malloy, the Tigers (31-31) weren't completely lifeless against Ureña, who owns a 4.80 ERA in his 10-year MLB career. Ureña, 32, pitched for the Tigers in 2021, posting a 5.81 ERA across 100⅔ innings in 26 games (18 starts).

Ureña retired the first 15 batters he faced in Wednesday's game.

"It's in everyone's mind," Malloy said. "Everyone wants to get a hit and ruin it."

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In the sixth inning, Malloy stepped to the plate and refused to swing at the first four pitches. Three pitches were outside of the strike zone for balls; one was painted on the down-and-away corner of the zone for a called strike.

The fifth pitch traveled 413 feet to the seats in left-center field.

Malloy crushed a middle-in sinker with a 105.9 mph exit velocity for his first hit and first home run in the third game of his MLB career. He cut the Tigers' deficit to 4-1.

"Off the bat, I knew I hit it good," Malloy said. "I didn't know it was going. I was willing it out of there. After that, it's kind of a blackout, then point to your bullpen because you got to show love to your boys, then make sure you touch all the bases and then celebrate. It was cool in the moment."

After Malloy's homer, Ureña retired the next five batters he faced before walking Gio Urshela on eight pitches with two outs in the seventh inning.

In total, Ureña sent down 20 of 22 batters, striking out six while allowing one hit and one walk across 6⅔ scoreless innings. He received a standing ovation from the fans at Globe Life Field as he walked from the mound to the dugout.

"He was missing bats and pitching with a lot of freedom," manager A.J. Hinch said of Ureña, whom he managed in 2021. "He was in complete control of the game from the onset."

Malloy collected the second hit of his career — and the Tigers' second hit of the game — against right-handed reliever David Robertson in the eighth inning. He hit an inside curveball for a ground-ball single into left field that deflected off the third baseman.

The Tigers, squandering a three-game winning streak, finished with two hits and one walks. The Tigers scored just six runs in the three-game series against the Rangers.

Malloy is 2-for-10 (.200) in the first three games of his MLB career.

"People talk about it like getting a monkey off your back," Malloy said of his first hit in his third game. "It feels like getting an angry gorilla off your back. For my parents to be here and see it in person, I thought that was pretty cool because they're leaving tomorrow. To be able to give that moment to them was sick."

A short start

Right-hander Kenta Maeda threw just two pitches in his 10th start for the Tigers this season. He exited the game with right side abdominal discomfort in the first inning.

"It was unfortunate that I only threw two pitches and felt discomfort in this rib area," Maeda said in Japanese, through interpreter Dai Sekizaki. "I feel bad for our relievers who came in. I had to tax the bullpen."

The Tigers called left-handed reliever Joey Wentz out of the bullpen, only for Wentz to walk the bases loaded with three consecutive two-out walks.

Wentz fell behind 3-0 in the count to Wyatt Langford with the bases loaded, but he escaped the jam to end the first inning by firing three strikes in a row, capped off by an elevated fastball for a swinging strikeout.

"It's 27 outs at a minimum, so you got to start over and start from scratch," Hinch said. "We didn't have guys that were super-fresh out there based on how this road trip had gone, so it was unfortunate."

But the Rangers took a 1-0 lead in the second inning with an RBI single from Corey Seager. The Rangers then upped their lead to 2-0 with Josh Smith's solo home run to open the third inning.

Wentz allowed three runs on four hits and four walks with two strikeouts in 2⅔ innings. Of his 65 pitches, 32 were strikes and 33 were balls. He threw first-pitch strikes to six of 15 batters for a poor 40% first-pitch strike rate.

The third run scored after Wentz's departure.

He exited with a runner on first base and two outs in the third inning, replaced by right-handed reliever Mason Englert. Jonah Heim crushed Englert's first-pitch hanging slider for a two-run home run to right field, making it 4-0.

The two-run homer represented the final run charged to Wentz and the first run charged to Englert.

Costly errors, Zach McKinstry pitches

The Rangers took a 6-1 lead with two runs in the sixth inning, a result of second baseman Colt Keith's two-out fielding error. A hard-hit grounder took a tough hop, deflected off Keith's glove and rolled into shallow center field.

A run scored on the fielding error for a 5-1 margin. Smith, the next batter, delivered an RBI single to center field for a 6-1 advantage. To avoid further damage, Englert struck out Adolis García with a nasty down-and-away changeup.

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Englert, who threw 53 pitches, allowed three runs (one earned run) on four hits and one walk with one strikeout.

Left-handed reliever Andrew Chafin surrendered three runs (two earned runs) in the eighth inning. The first run scored on a single; the second run scored on a throwing error by first baseman Mark Canha; the third run scored on a single.

Chafin used 34 pitches to get one out, so the Tigers replaced him with position player Zach McKinstry and sent Malloy to right field for his first MLB appearance in the outfield.

McKinstry retired back-to-back batters on four pitches in the third pitching appearance of his career.

His four pitches averaged 40.5 mph.

Contact Evan Petzold at epetzold@freepress.com or follow him @EvanPetzold.

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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Tigers' Justyn-Henry Malloy gets first HR in 9-1 loss at Texas