ARLINGTON, Texas — Here’s how bad things went for the Minnesota Twins: Michael Cuddyer became the first Minnesota position player to pitch since 1990.

Ian Kinsler homered and drove in four runs as the Rangers pounded out the most runs and hits in the majors this season with a 20-6 rout of the Twins on Monday night.

“It was probably the worst I’ve had here as a manager as far as runs scored against us,” said Ron Gardenhire, the Twins manager since 2002.

Kinsler had four of the Rangers’ league-best 27 hits as Texas became the first team to score 20 runs since Milwaukee beat Pittsburgh 20-0 on April 22 last season. The Rangers had 18 runs by the fifth inning as they scored three runs in each of the first three innings. Texas added five in the fourth and four in the fifth.

“The first five innings looked like a ZIP code, that will tell you how it went…33354,” Gardenhire said. “I think that’s Florida…Fort Lauderdale.”

It was only the third time in the modern era that a team has scored three or more runs in the first five innings. Texas had it done to them by Oakland in 1991. Philadelphia accomplished the feat in 1900 against Pittsburgh according to information provided by the Rangers from the Elias Sports Bureau.

Cuddyer moved from right field to the mound to work the eighth for the Twins. Cuddyer gave up a double to Mike Napoli, a bloop single to Mitch Moreland, and walked Kinsler with one out to load the bases.

But Cuddyer retired Elvis Andrus on a fly ball and David Murphy on a pop-up for a scoreless inning.

“It was fun out there,” Cuddyer said. “I got to work through some trouble. I threw sinkers, a cutter, one curve and three changeups.”

The last Twins position player to pitch was outfielder John Moses against California on July 31, 1990.

Gardenhire said Cuddyer, who pitched in high school, had made it clear he wanted to pitch in a blowout game. He’s now played every position in the majors except catcher and shortstop.

“I had to put somebody out there and he would have killed me if I would have put anybody else out there,” said Gardenhire, who had used five pitchers before Cuddyer and wanted to save a few relievers for Tuesday night’s game against Texas.

“That was his one goal in his career was to pitch, and he pitched. I was scared to death, but he got through it. He had a big smile on his face. We had to get through the ninth as best we could.”

Napoli and Nelson Cruz also had four hits as all the Rangers starters had at least two except for third baseman Chris Davis, who was hitless in six at-bats. Michael Young also went deep and had three RBIs for Texas.

Rangers starter Derek Holland (9-4) easily set a career-high for victories, allowing an unearned run and five hits in six innings with four strikeouts to surpass his eight-win rookie season in 2009.

Josh Hamilton and Endy Chavez also drove in three runs each to help the Rangers surpass Cleveland’s output in a 19-1 blowout at Kansas City on May 16. Texas also passed the 25 hits that the Los Angeles Dodgers had against Minnesota on June 27.

Jason Kubel hit a 449-foot homer off Arthur Rhodes in the eighth for the Twins, who’ve lost six of nine.

Minnesota starter Nick Blackburn (7-7) was knocked around for nine runs — six earned — and 11 hits in 2 2-3 innings.

“I don’t think Ithrew more than two or three pitches below the knees all night,” Blackburn said. “For a sinkerball pitcher, that’s no way to be successful.”

The Rangers jumped to a 3-0 first-inning lead a day after they were limited to four singles by Toronto’s Brett Cecil in the Blue Jays’ 3-0 victory on Sunday night.

Andrus reached on an infield single and scored on Hamilton’s double. Young followed with his ninth homer into the right field seats on Blackburn’s 1-0 pitch.

In the second, RBI doubles by Kinsler and Hamilton and Young’s run-scoring single gave Holland a 6-0 pad, and Kinsler added a three-run blast in the third.

When Andrus followed with a single, Blackburn’s shortest outing of the season was over, matching the most runs he’s allowed in any of his 113 career starts.

Minnesota got on the board in the fourth with an unearned run aided by an error by Andrus at shortstop. After Alexi Casilla singled, Joe Mauer hit a sharp grounder that Holland gloved. Holland fired to second to start what appeared to be an easy double play, but the throw bounced off Andrus’ glove.

Casilla scored on Cuddyer’s double-play grounder, but the Rangers stretched their edge to 14-1 with a five-run fourth highlighted by Moreland’s two-run double.