St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Angels

When an offense sets the tone in the opening frame, it makes life on the mound a whole lot easier. The Angels wasted no time establishing dominance at Angel Stadium on Tuesday, using a five-run first inning and six strong frames from starter Walbert Ureña to earn a 5-1 victory over the Cardinals. "Coming out here, today especially, setting the tone right off the bat from the first inning. ... Ureña doing what he was doing, then for the bullpen to come in and shut them down -- it was a great team victory," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. After Ureña stranded two runners in the top half of the first, the Halos swung aggressive bats against St. Louis starter Matthew Liberatore, sending seven hitters to the plate before the Cardinals could gather two outs. Zach Neto set the table with a sharp single to left field. After a Mike Trout single, Nolan Schanuel drew a walk, setting up designated hitter Jorge Soler with two on and one out. Soler delivered, lining his 14th double of the season to left field to score both Trout and Schanuel, opening the scoring at 2-0. The Angels kept the pressure on. Vaughn Grissom immediately followed with an RBI single to right to extend the lead to 3-0. After a brief mound visit by the St. Louis coaching staff, Jo Adell provided the inning’s biggest blow, crushing a fly ball to left-center field for a two-run home run -- his 15th of the season -- to bring home Grissom and cap the five-run frame. "From the start of the game, we did our job collectively as a group," Adell said. "Everybody was pitching in and just waiting on pitches that they could handle."