St. Louis (10-20), facing the Angels for the first time in four years, has lost seven of its last 10 games and is 0-10 in series openers.
On a night when Shohei Ohtani was given his second game off of the season, Mike Trout walked against Steven Matz (0-4) with one out in the first, Hunter Renfroe singled and Anthony Rendon hit a go-ahead single.
With two outs, Ward hit a 2-2 changeup over the left-field wall for his fourth homer this season and a 4-0 lead.
Rookie Zach Neto added an RBI single in the sixth off Drew VerHagen.
Sandoval (3-1), coming off a victory over Oakland, won back-to-back starts for the first time since last May. Making his first appearance against the Cardinals, he allowed three hits and three walks in five-plus innings with four strikeouts. He gave up his only run on Andrew Knizner’s RBI groundout in the fifth.
(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)
Chris Devenski, making his second appearance since he was brought up from the minors. relieved with two on in the sixth, got Nolan Arenado to ground into a double play and retired Dylan Carlson on a flyout.
Devenski, a 32-year-old right-hander in his eight big league season, pitched a perfect seventh.
Matt Moore struck out three around a single in the eighth, and Carlos Estévez struck out two in a perfect ninth.
Matz allowed four runs, four hits and two walks in five innings.
Remembering an icon: The Cardinals held a pregame moment of silence for former player and broadcaster Mike Shannon who died on Sunday. Shannon played with the Cardinals for parts of nine seasons before spending 50 years in the broadcast booth.
Ohtani takes the day off: The Angels were off Monday, and Ohtani got consecutive days off going into his mound start Wednesday night.
Injury update: Angels activated RHP Ryan Tepera (right shoulder inflammation) from the 15-day injured list and optioned RHP Andrew Wantz to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Up next: RHP Ohtani (4-0, 1.85 ERA) will make his first career pitching appearance against the Cardinals Wednesday night. He will be opposed by RHP Miles Mikolas (1-1, 5.97 ERA), who is 1-2 with a 3.07 ERA in four two starts and two relief appearances against the Angels.