ANAHEIM -- 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."
With a 5-0 cushion before taking the mound for the second, Ureña settled in, throwing strikes and working efficiently behind solid defense. Benefiting from extra rest he received following his most recent start on July 8, the 22-year-old right-hander flashed raw, overpowering velocity -- hitting triple digits on the radar gun 16 times during his outing.
"I haven't seen him do that all year, so it was pretty neat," Suzuki said of Ureña's velocity. "He was commanding it. He was executing. He was attacking the zone. ... He was on the attack from the get-go, and that set the tone."
For Ureña, the extra rest was just as much mental as it was physical.
"Those days made me feel better, just resting and resetting my mind with my family," Ureña said. "I feel comfortable. ... Especially today, I just felt like, 'OK, let's go and throw hard. You have the stuff, so just use it.’"
His stuff didn't just catch the coaching staff's attention -- it also left his teammates in awe.
"He was unbelievable," Adell said. "Mike [Trout] looked over to me in the first and second innings and was like, 'This is, like, 100 mile-an-hour changeups. Disgusting.' You see some of the guys in the [Cardinals’] lineup that have played really well this season that were just baffled at what he was doing.
“And that's what he's capable of, is coming out and just giving us a performance like that. I mean, this stuff's unbelievable. So, it was sick.”
That high-velocity beginning opened up the rest of Ureña's arsenal as the game progressed. After leaning heavily on his fastball early, Ureña adjusted to his changeup starting in the third inning. He used the pitch to induce ground balls, including a 5-4-3 double play turned by Grissom, Oswald Peraza and Schanuel to erase a leadoff walk in the top of the third.
The right-hander ran into his only real jam in the fifth, after consecutive ground-ball singles put runners on the corners. Blaze Jordan scored St. Louis’ lone run on a forceout at second base, but Ureña coaxed a soft grounder from Iván Herrera to limit the damage. Ureña finished his night allowing just one run on six hits and one walk while striking out five over 98 pitches.
From there, the Angels' bullpen took care of the rest. Mitch Farris, Chase Silseth, and Ryan Zeferjahn combined for three scoreless innings of relief -- highlighted by a sparkling, rolling catch at shortstop by Neto in the eighth -- to secure the series victory.
While Ureña's raw 100-plus mph heat stood out on the stat sheet, Suzuki pointed to the young right-hander's mental development as the true key to his growth on the mound.
"The velocity, the stuff have always been there for him," Suzuki said. "I think it's his composure, his demeanor on the mound, not letting the game speed up. ... You saw him kind of control his emotions. And when he can harness his stuff like that, he's going to be pretty special."