3 big reasons why the Cardinals are struggling

Getting swept in three games at Yankee Stadium doesn't have the same cache it once did. The New York Yankees are certainly on the rise - and may be better than anyone gave them credit for - but the St. Louis Cardinals were seen as the logical second fiddle to the National League Central champion Chicago Cubs.

Entering the weekend set, the Cardinals were a bad but not disastrous 3-6. Exiting the weekend, tails tucked and heads hanging, the Cardinals were 3-9 and nursing the franchise's worst start in almost 20 years. Even after winning a close 2-1 contest against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday, only the Toronto Blue Jays have a worse winning percentage.

So, what's wrong? While the obvious answer is ... everything, it goes a bit deeper than that. And it's worth noting that there are some slight silver linings to be gleaned from this mess, but that doesn't make it any more digestible for the Cardinals faithful.

A crumbling bullpen providing no relief for decent rotation

It's probably too early to call for the hook in reference to closer Seung Hwan Oh, who has been unsteady through five appearances. He's allowed two home runs in 5 2/3 innings after only surrendering five total long balls in 79 2/3 innings in 2016. He's also struck out only two batters after registering more than 11 Ks per nine innings a year ago.

Oh is the highest-profile reliever failing to make a positive impact, but he's not alone. Lefty Kevin Siegrist has a 10.38 ERA and has walked eight batters in only 4 1/3 innings. Jonathan Broxton has been arguably as bad with a worse ERA, but slightly better peripherals - though a 9.82 walk rate is still abominable.

The bullpen shouldn't be a massive concern just yet. Siegrist has always been somewhat erratic with the strike zone, and free-agent acquisition Brett Cecil is a notoriously slow starter. Oh's whiff rate is so far off 2016's numbers that it could be an anomaly in such a small sample size.

On the bright side, Trevor Rosenthal has looked borderline untouchable, and five of his seven recorded outs have been strikeouts. Matt Bowman hasn't allowed a run in 6 1/3 innings, and has stranded every runner he's inherited, which is music to his starter's ears.

If the bullpen can turn it around - and it should, since according to Fangraphs only Broxton is allowing an inordinate amount of hard hit balls - the starters won't have to be superhuman to record wins. Mike Leake has allowed only one earned run in 15 innings. Lance Lynn dominated the Pirates on Monday. Carlos Martinez's 2.79 FIP and 12.23 K/9 help forgive his customarily high walk rate, and Michael Wacha has gone six solid innings in consecutive starts. It brings us, however, to our next problem.

What do the Cardinals do with Adam Wainwright?

Wainwright has made three starts and he's completed five innings only once. He's walked six batters in 13 2/3 innings, which has been his most alarming trend. Wainwright was once a command pitcher. In 2013, he didn't walk a batter through his first four starts and only walked three batters in a single start only once all season.

The solution may be to return him to whence he came. No, not Atlanta. The bullpen. Wainwright was an excellent presence in the Cardinals' bullpen in his 2006 rookie campaign, and he inherited the closer's role for the postseason from Jason Isringhausen following a hip injury. This led to him unleashing a savage curveball to eliminate Carlos Beltran and the New York Mets en route to a NL Championship Series - and eventual World Series championship.

Nothing is working for him right now, and losing Alex Reyes for the season gives the team less rotation flexibility. Unless he rights the ship soon, he's hurting the Cardinals and forcing the bullpen into action early. It is conceivable that he'd be a significant upgrade over Broxton in the pen. The other nagging problem is Wainwright can't be blamed for the lack of runs being scored.

The worst offense in the National League

The team's 44 runs scored is the fewest in the NL - full disclosure, the San Diego Padres have 45 runs and have played one more game, but the Padres are pretty much a Triple-A team - and only the Blue Jays have a worse team OPS to start the season.

Aledmys Diaz has not walked once in 12 games. Matt Adams is striking out 33.3 percent of the time and Randal Grichuk isn't far behind. Dexter Fowler is batting .132 atop the batting order. Of the team's qualified hitters, Stephen Piscotty owns the most impressive slash line of .265/.390/.471.

Then there's Jhonny Peralta with the team's lowest hard-hit percentage of 6.3. He's making terrible contact and has been a net negative for the second year in a row. Unless Kolten Wong builds on his slight success from Monday (1-for-3 with a home run), the Cardinals are in desperate need of an impact bat (or two), especially in the infield, if there is any hope of contending this season. And Peralta is not likely yielding much in a trade.

Yes, it may be too early to panic, but it's also far too early to be four games out of first place.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)