ST. LOUIS — After spending all weekend unveiling and improving upon their recipe to win games, the Cardinals had to show Monday they could improvise one, too.

A lead misplaced in the seventh inning became a game that lingered into the 10th inning and tumbled into the Cardinals’ first loss of the season, and all of it happened in front of the smallest non-pandemic crowd in 20 seasons of Busch Stadium III. The Los Angeles Angels scored two runs in the top of the 10th without a hit against JoJo Romero and the Cardinals could not answer, even with MLB's extra-inning head start of a runner at second base.

The Cardinals eked out a run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning but got the potential tying run only as far as first base in a 5-4 loss.

After a walk, a sacrifice bunt, and an intentional walk to begin the 10th, Mike Trout brought home the Angels’ second run of the 10th inning with a bases-loaded sacrifice fly. A nifty pivot by the Cardinals caught a runner trying to advance from first base and ended the 10th with a double play that gave the Cardinals less of a gap to close in the 10th.

The Cardinals set the pace early with solo homers by Lars Nootbaar and Brendan Donovan to lead off the game and the second inning, respectively. Nootbaar regained a two-run lead by working a walk, luring a balk and scoring on Nolan Arenado’s two-out single in the fifth. The Angels chipped away at the Cardinals’ bullpen from there.

Kyren Paris’ RBI triple off Ryan Fernandez in seventh inning leveled the game, 3-3, and sent the tie into the late innings to be decided in a final at-bat.

In the ninth, the Cardinals got the potential winning run into scoring position when Willson Contreras, hitless so far this season, dropped a bunt that nudged Nootbaar to second. When the Angels walked Arenado, the game came to Pedro Pages. The Cardinals’ catcher entered the game as a defensive replacement in the seventh, but had two at-bats that otherwise would have gone to Ivan Herrera.

Smallest crowd at Busch

A chilly Monday night game on the final day of March also drew only 21,206 tickets sold for the smallest crowd in Busch Stadium history for a non-pandemic game, and by a good margin.

The Cardinals entered the season braced for such numbers due to reduced expectations for the team, sluggish ticket sales a year ago, and not exactly a fan-friendly schedule with a six-game home stand against American League clubs to begin the schedule. The Cardinals prefer to open on the road each season to limit early games on school nights in unfavorable weather.

The crowd Monday was the smallest by more than 5,000 off the previous low, and St. Louis City SC had more at its sellout Sunday, with 22,423.

Launch codes for lefties

For the third time in four games this season, Nootbaar scored in the first inning — and this time he took care of the RBI, too.

For the first time in his career, Donovan added to the lead with a homer off a lefty.

Angels starter Tyler Anderson force-feeds change-ups into the zone, relying on that off-speed pitch for nearly two out of every five pitches he throws. Anderson saved his first change-up of the game Monday for his fourth pitch — and then watched it sail out of the park. Nootbaar lined a 1-2 change-up over the right field wall, just low enough and into the signage that it was initially not ruled a home run.

In committee, the umpires reconsidered.

That call gave Nootbaar his sixth career leadoff homer and his seventh homer off a left-handed pitcher in his career and the Cardinals’ 1-0 lead. They would have the lead at the end of 32 of their first 33 innings played this season.

Donovan doubled that lead when he opened the second with a solo homer off Anderson. Donovan’s first homer of the season was also the first of his big league career against a left-handed pitcher. The home run came in his 336th plate appearance against a lefty in the majors.

Roycroft holds, then bullpen leaks

When Mike Trout — of Mike Trout fame — came up in the fifth inning for his third look at starter Miles Mikolas, he could also see the tying run on base. Mikolas walked a batter earlier in the inning to invite trouble and allowed a single on his 80th pitch. That would also be his last pitch.

Rather than leave Mikolas in for the at-bats that could decide his inning and qualify him for a win, manager Oliver Marmol went to the bullpen.

Chris Roycroft entered his highest-leverage spot yet.

Eager to get a ground ball to cleanup up the inning, Roycroft held Trout instead to a fly out to center. The former MVP’s sacrifice fly trimmed the Cardinals’ lead down to 3-2, but it also gave Roycroft control of the inning. He struck out Jorge Soler to leave, as Mikolas did after 4 1/3 innings, with the lead.

That was not the case for the next Cardinals’ reliever, Fernandez. The back half of the Angels’ lineup turned a walk and a triple into a tie game and blown hold on Fernandez. Paris hit a ball that pinballed around left field and Nootbaar to bring home Luis Rengifo and tie the game, 3-3.

Bench warming

With lefty Anderson on the mound, Marmol had a handy reason to get the last of the Cardinals’ position players to appear in a game into the lineup.

Luken Baker started at DH, but he kept the bench warm.

In their first starts off the bench this season, Pedro Pages and Nolan Gorman both had three hits Sunday and a home run. In his first swings of the season, Baker singled twice and reached base in all three of his plate appearances. Marmol batted Baker, one of the Cardinals’ top sluggers in spring, third in large part to force the Angels to make a decision in the middle innings. With Baker batting third and from the right side — instead of Donovan from the left — that would mean the Angels stick with Anderson for a third time through.

Or, if they turned to a right-handed reliever at that point, the Cardinals had Alec Burleson or Gorman to counter as a pinch hitter.

Angels manager Ron Washington sided with Anderson facing Baker a third time.

Baker fouled off a couple of pitches to stay in the count against Anderson before working a two-out walk. That walk preceded Arenado’s RBI single that gave the Cardinals’ their one-run lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning.

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