The St Louis Cardinals were unable to hold onto an early lead, as the Los Angeles Angels chipped away at the Cardinals’ lead, handing St Louis their first loss of the season Monday, March 31 in extra innings, 5-4.

The Cardinals struck first with solo home runs by Lars Nootbaar in the first and Brendan Donovan in the second. Nolan Arenado added an RBI single in the fifth that brought home Nootbaar. The Angels relied on sacrifice flies to get on the board, first from Taylor Ward in the third and then Mike Trout in the sixth. Kyren Paris’ triple in the top of the seventh tied the game. A fielders choice in the tenth put Los Angeles in front for the first time, and Paris was able to score on another Trout sacrifice fly before it turned into a double play. The Cardinals could only add one run in the bottom half of the tenth with Victor Scott the Second’s sacrifice fly scoring Pedro Pagés.

Miles Mikolas had the no-decision in his first start of the year, going 5.1 innings and allowing two runs on two hits and two walks while striking out three. JoJo Romero claimed the loss by allowing two runs (one earned) on two walks, while Ryan Fernandez was assessed his first blown save of the year.

Game two of the interleague series is Tuesday at Busch Stadium; first pitch is at 6:45 p.m.