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Cardinals pound Angels with big second inning

Jul 4, 2013 - 6:06 AM Anaheim, CA (Sports Network) - Mike Trout has made several big catches in his young career, but the play in the second inning typified the night the Angels had against the St. Louis Cardinals.

Trout nearly robbed Jon Jay of a homer, but the ball caromed out of his glove upon impact with the wall in center and it went over for a two-run blast.

That play highlighted a seven-run second inning, as the Cardinals walloped the Angels, 12-2, to snap Los Angeles' seven-game winning streak.

Jay drove in three runs, and Matt Carpenter also went deep and had three RBI.

"A lot of good things happened tonight. We had a big inning in the second and it kept going all night," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said.

Shelby Miller (9-6) snapped a personal two-game skid. The 22-year-old right- hander allowed five hits and two runs while fanning six over six innings.

"I felt like my fastball had a little bit of life," Miller said.

Daniel Descalso had a two-run double in the big inning, as the Cardinals bounced back from a 5-1 loss Tuesday and won for just the third time in 10 games.

Albert Pujols again struggled against his former club. Pujols, who spent his first 11 seasons with the Cardinals but faced them for a first time Tuesday, has gone 0-for-7 so far in this three-game series. That includes an 0-for-4 performance Wednesday. His batting average is down to .244 and he's in a 2-for-29 slump.

Jerome Williams (5-4) yielded four hits, four walks and seven runs over 1 2/3 innings for the Angels, who have dropped four of their last five home games. Hank Conger hit a two-run homer in defeat.

"You're going to have games that get away from you, and tonight was one of them," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "Jerome had a good idea of what he wanted to do, but in the second inning he tried to be too fine and things got away from him."

The Cardinals loaded the bases with nobody out in the second inning thanks to walks to Allen Craig and Matt Adams sandwiched around a single from Yadier Molina. Freese then grounded out to plate the first run.

Descalso followed by lining a double down the right field line for a 3-0 lead. One out later, Carpenter hit a bloop RBI single to right-center. Jay then homered to center.

Molina capped the big inning with a run-scoring base hit that scored Carlos Beltran.

Conger homered to right in the bottom of the second, but David Freese scored on a Garrett Richards error in the third to move St. Louis' edge to 8-2.

The Cardinals expanded the cushion to 10-2 in the fifth thanks to an RBI double from Carpenter, who then scored on Jay's single.

Carpenter homered to right-center off Billy Buckner in the seventh and Adams singled in the final run in the eighth.

Game Notes

Molina and Carpenter each had three hits ... Josh Hamilton went 1-for-2 to extend his hitting streak to eight games for the Angels ... Carpenter now has a 12-game hitting streak.