Ivan Herrera hit three home runs to lift the host St. Louis Cardinals to a 12-5 victory over the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday afternoon, avoiding a sweep by winning the finale of the three-game series.
Herrera hit a solo homer in the fourth inning, a two-run homer in the sixth, and his three-run homer in the eighth capped a seven-run outburst that broke open a close game.
It was the first three-homer game by a Cardinal since Paul Goldschmidt hit three in May of 2023.
Logan O’Hoppe’s grand slam in the seventh inning gave the Angels a 5-3 lead, but the Cardinals rallied against the Angels’ bullpen with two runs in the seventh to tie the game and seven in the eighth.
St. Louis’ big eighth inning was sparked by back-to-back bunt singles by Victor Scott II and Masyn Winn.
Cardinals reliever Jojo Romero (1-1) earned the victory over Angels reliever Ian Anderson (0-1). Mike Trout hit his first homer of the season for Los Angeles.
The Angels took a 1-0 lead in the first inning against Cardinals starter Sonny Gray when Trout homered, his first since April 24 of last season. Gray threw a curveball in the lower half of the strike zone on a 1-2 count that Trout hit over the center field fence for his 379th career homer, tying Tony Perez and Orlando Cepeda for 74th on the all-time list.
The Cardinals got on the scoreboard when Herrera hit Angels starter Yusei Kikuchi’s first pitch of the fourth inning over the fence in left field for his first homer of the season and a 1-1 tie.
The Cardinals took the lead in the sixth inning when Herrera, following a single by Nolan Arenado, hit his second home run of the game to put the Cardinals up 3-1.
The Angels regained the lead at 5-3 in the top of the seventh inning on O’Hoppe’s grand slam, which came on the first pitch from Gray after Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol paid Gray a visit on the mound.
Lars Nootbaar, Winn and Arenado each had two hits for St. Louis.
