ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Scoring runs is not a problem for the St. Louis Cardinals this season.

Scoring runs when Mike Leake is pitching, now that is a different story.

Leake was winless in his first six starts with the Cardinals after signing a big contract with the club, and part of the reason was a lack of run support.

The Cardinals went into the Tuesday game at Angel Stadium averaging 3.7 runs per game in games Leake started, 5.9 runs per game in all other games. On Tuesday, though, they combined Leake's best performance of the season with a 14-hit attack to beat the reeling Los Angeles Angels 8-1.

Matt Carpenter hit two home runs, and Matt Holliday and Randal Grichuk each hit one as the Cardinals sent the Angels to their fourth loss in a row and eighth in 10 games.

"(Leake) pitched great tonight, we were able to get him some runs and he went out and shut them down," said Carpenter, whose first home run marked the 10th of his career leading off a game. "It was good for all of us. Good for him to pitch well and good for the offense to get going."

Leake spent most of his career with the Cincinnati Reds before signing a five-year, $80 million contract with the Cardinals last December. Going winless in his first six starts was not the way he wanted to begin his career in St. Louis.

"It feels pretty good," he said of the win over the Angels. "To me, it's another game, (but) I guess six or seven games of not producing will do something. You just have to keep moving forward and learning."

Leake (1-3) found a groove early and completed eight innings, giving up one run on six hits and one walk. He retired 14 Angels hitters in a row between a leadoff single by C.J. Cron in the second inning and a two-out walk by Mike Trout in the sixth.

"All my pitches were working pretty well tonight, it was just a matter of all of them working in the location I wanted them to go," Leake said. "For the most part, it was a pretty good game today as far as hitting spots."

While the Cardinals (17-16) are trying to build some momentum after hovering around the .500 mark all season, the Angels (13-19) are in danger of seeing their season collapse. They fell to a season-worst six games under .500, losing more than just a game on Tuesday.

Starting shortstop Andrelton Simmons had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb earlier in the day, just the latest in a string of injuries to cripple the club.

"We're not looking at anything spiraling, we're looking at the process," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "We're better than we've shown. There's no doubt there's some voids that we have to fill, and we're confident that we will.

"Those guys in that (clubhouse), they're upbeat in the dugout, they want to get it done, they want to play well, sometimes to a fault. And our job is really just to get them to exhale and go out there and play baseball."

Angels starter Hector Santiago (2-2), an All-Star last season, struggled early and didn't make it out of the fifth inning, giving up four runs on seven hits and two walks in 4 1/3 innings.

Santiago's velocity is down from 93-94 mph earlier in the season to 89-90 mph on Tuesday, but Scioscia said there is nothing wrong with his left-hander.

"Yeah, we've talked about that, we talked to Hector in between starts and we talked to him today," Scioscia said. "He feels good. His delivery adds a lot of deception, and at times, when it's not quite in sync, the ball might not be coming out as crisply as it would when he has things together."

NOTES: Angels SS Andrelton Simmons had surgery to repair a thickness tear of the ulnar collateral ligament of his left thumb. He is expected to miss two months. ... The Angels acquired SS Brendan Ryan from the Nationals for cash and/or a player to be named. Ryan was playing for Triple-A Syracuse, hitting .263 with one homer and eight RBIs. ... Cardinals SS Aledmys Diaz began the night ranked first in the majors in OPS (1.119), third in hitting (.396), tied for second in slugging percentage (.688) and seventh in on-base percentage (.431). He went 1-for-3 with an RBI. ... Cardinals RHP Carlos Martinez will get a couple of extra days of rest between starts because of flu-like symptoms and a respiratory illness. Martinez will pitch Saturday against the Dodgers instead of Thursday against the Angels. RHP Adam Wainwright will pitch Thursday on normal rest.