Allard at home in long-awaited road win

Rangers starter Kolby Allard grew up an hour from Dodger Stadium in San Clemente, Calif. On Saturday night, the 23-year-old pitched five scoreless innings against his hometown team in a 12-1 Rangers win.

“I had a lot of family and friends in the stands tonight, so it's definitely cool to be able to go out there and see us get a ‘W,’ for sure,” Allard said of playing close to his hometown. “I tried to stay the course, go out there, throw strikes and execute.”

• Box score

Allard had been consistent out of the bullpen all season before shifting into the rotation on May 27. Since then, he’s pitched 14 innings, allowing four runs off 10 hits in three starts. It was his first win as a starter since Sept. 5, 2019, against the Orioles.

Allard said he’s always believed he could be an MLB-caliber starter and has shown flashes of that since his debut in 2018, but he’s been proving it more and more with each appearance this season.

Manager Chris Woodward said it’s almost Allard’s slot in the rotation to lose at his point as the Rangers have tried to fill the void created by Kohei Arihara’s shoulder injury. Allard has taken advantage and earned the spot over the past three starts.

“He was just fantastic,” said catcher Jonah Heim. “Five innings of shutout baseball against that team, you gotta be doing something right. We were on the same page, we were clicking. He had every pitch working for him, so that makes my job easy to call whatever pitches to throw strikes. We executed the game plan just how we talked about it. He was outstanding tonight.”

Heim was given the Rangers’ MVP Cowboy Hat after the win, for his work both behind the plate and in the batters’ box. He went 3-for-5 with a two-run home run in the fourth inning.

However, Heim is more proud of his work behind the plate and how he’s able to get the best out of the pitchers each night.

The win snapped a 16-game road losing streak for the Rangers which spanned three different road trips. That tied a franchise record set by the 1961 Washington Senators, who finished with 100 losses on the season.

The Rangers’ offense backed up its starter, getting nine hits and six runs off reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer. Nine hits is the most any team has off Bauer this season. Texas’ 12 runs and 17 hits are the most allowed by the Dodgers this season.

Isiah Kiner-Falefa led the charge with a 3-for-5 day at the plate to go along with three steals, which were a single-game career high. He also reached a third time on a Mookie Betts error in the third inning. In addition to Kiner-Falefa and Heim, Adolis García, Nathaniel Lowe, Joey Gallo and Jason Martin each had multiple hits, with Lowe and Martin’s two-run shots in the ninth making it a laugher. Martin’s homer was the first of his career.

Woodward said he felt like a lot of players who had been struggling -- such as Lowe and Heim -- got monkeys off their backs in the overpowering win.

“Our hitters have been struggling, there's no question,” Woodward said. “We haven’t scored a whole lot of runs. It was good for our offense to kind of break out and gain a little confidence.”