MINNEAPOLIS -- Rangers starter Adrian Sampson began Friday night setting the Twins down in order in the first, striking out two of the three batters he faced. He thought it might be his night.

The second inning changed all that. The Twins scored six off Sampson in that inning and went on to a 15-6 victory at Target Field. Sampson ended up allowing seven runs in 3 1/3 innings, and he is now 6-6 with a 4.70 ERA in 12 starts and seven relief appearances on the season.

“Couple of strikeouts and made them look bad, throwing it where I wanted to throw it,” Sampson said. “Second inning, things got away from me. This is a good team, that’s the bottom line. They are a really good team. We just have to pitch better and keep our team in the game, and let our offense get going. They don’t miss mistakes. One through nine, they are quality hitters. You can’t get away with anything against a team like this.”

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The Twins hit four home runs in the series opener and they have 165 for the season, the most in Major League history for a team before the All-Star break. They also had nine doubles to tie a club record for the most extra-base hits in one game. This also marked the fourth time in Rangers history that they allowed 13 or more extra-base hits in one game. The Marlins had the most with 14 on July 26, 2017.

“We made a lot of mistakes up in the zone and in the middle of the plate,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “Not a good recipe to keep that offense from scoring runs. You miss and they make you pay for it. One thing we talked about is not elevating the ball, and Sampson obviously had a hard time keeping the ball down. A lot of balls in the middle of the plate.”

Woodward said Sampson is at his best when his pitches are down and on the edge. That sets up the slider, his best swing-and-miss pitch. But Sampson was getting too much of the plate in the second inning and he wasn’t able to make a quick adjustment.

“Almost being a little too aggressive on the pitches,” Sampson said. “Trying to attack the zone a little too much. Sometimes you get away with it and sometimes you don’t.”

Sampson’s struggles came on a night when former Rangers pitcher Martin Perez came away with a win against his old team. Perez responded to a 6-0 lead by giving the Twins six scoreless innings.

The Rangers, trailing 9-0, scored five in the seventh with a rally capped by Shin-Soo Choo’s two-run home run. It was Choo’s 13th home run of the season, but just his second in his last 27 games. However any momentum generated by the rally took a hit when the Twins scored three more in the bottom of the seventh.