St. Louis Cardinals at Los Angeles Angels: Final Score & Recap

The Los Angeles Angels defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 3-2 at Angel Stadium on July 20, 2026, in a game that hinged almost entirely on a dramatic ninth-inning comeback. The DiamondIQ model's estimate opened with a 42 percent pre-game home win probability for Los Angeles, a figure that dwindled through eight innings before exploding to 100 percent as the Angels staged a two-run walkoff against Cardinals reliever Riley O'Brien. St. Louis had built its lead on a two-run second inning, and Los Angeles answered with a lone run in the third, but the Cardinals held that margin into the final frame before everything unraveled.

The ninth inning told the entire story of the game. Jo Adell was hit by a pitch from O'Brien, a plate appearance that shifted win probability by 16.9 points in the Angels' favor, and Jorge Soler followed with another hit by pitch worth an additional 12.3 points. Those base runners set the stage for Vaughn Grissom, whose two-run double off O'Brien swung win probability by 50.8 points and ended the game. It was the single most consequential play of the night by a wide margin. The only meaningful swing in the other direction came in the bottom of the eighth, when Zach Neto's flyout against George Soriano cost Los Angeles 16.5 points of win probability at a moment when the Angels still had oxygen left in the game.

Grissom finished as the game's top performer by WPA at plus-37.5 percent, while Adell, who also hit a solo home run off Kyle Leahy in the third, posted plus-33.9 percent WPA and a RE24 of plus-2.6, reflecting his contribution across multiple plate appearances. Nolan Schanuel added plus-22.0 percent WPA for the Angels. On the mound, Soriano led all pitchers with plus-23.3 percent WPA, with Leahy at plus-21.8 and José Soriano at plus-21.1, as the Angels' staff largely kept St. Louis quiet after the second inning before O'Brien surrendered the decisive damage in the ninth.