Iván Herrera hit three home runs to help the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Los Angeles Angels 12-5 on Wednesday. Herrera hit his third home run of the game, and of the season, off Brock Burke to cap a seven-run eighth inning for the Cardinals.

Until Wednesday's game against the Los Angeles Angels, two St. Louis Cardinals starters had gone hitless through the team's first five games. Willson Contreras and Masyn Winn were hitting a collective 0-for-37 prior to the Wednesday matinee and added on to make it 0-for-42 before they both collected big hits in the bottom of the seventh.

The St. Louis Cardinals are 3-0 after a sweep of the Minnesota Twins, but they have already started to embarrass themselves.

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New hitting coach Brant Brown’s approach to hitting -- “There’s a time to slug and a time to hit,” he stressed repeatedly throughout Spring Training -- is already paying big dividends for the undefeated Cardinals.

Thunderous applause and roaring cheers followed Arenado throughout the day: When he first took the field on the back of a Ford-150 truck — a home opener tradition — and circled the field, when he was introduced before his first at-bat in the bottom of the first inning and during each of his at-bats that followed.