Adam Wainwright was cruising on Monday against the Royals, helped along by seven strikeouts and a spectacular catch from center fielder Dylan Carlson, until things took a turn for the veteran right-hander in the sixth inning.

Wainwright allowed two base hits and then walked Jorge Soler to load the bases for Maikel Franco, who promptly lined a single down the first-base line to score the go-ahead two runs in the Cardinals’ 4-1 loss in the series opener at Kauffman Stadium.

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“I don’t think [Franco has] ever hit a ball right of second base on me, honestly,” Wainwright said. “I just can’t think of one in a lot of at-bats. We were, rightfully so, shifting there. Good hitters, they find a way, they find a hole. That’s what he did.”

After Matt Carpenter put the Cardinals ahead with a solo home run in the second inning, the Cards’ offense couldn’t string anything else together. They left seven on base, and four of their six hits came off of Royals starter Carlos Hernández, who exited in the fourth inning. Paul Goldschmidt’s infield chopper in the fifth was the only Cardinals baserunner the Royals’ bullpen allowed until Yadier Molina laced his 1,996th career hit in the top of the ninth inning.

The Cardinals struck out nine times Monday night and have struck out 35 times in the past three days. That’s a different trend from what they’ve done since returning to the field back in August; for the most part, the Cardinals have stayed away from chasing, working the counts and taking their walks when they didn’t put the ball in play.

“I don’t think we can overreact to two or three days,” manager Mike Shildt said. “I don’t think there’s anything that we’ve gotten away from. … Some days, guys are going to chase a little bit. But by and large, the glue of what we’ve been able to do that’s really allowed our offense to be highly competitive … some nights, it’s not as easy to do. But our ability to be disciplined in the strike zone has been really darn good and one of the best in either [the American League and National League] Central.”

Entering Monday, St. Louis had the eighth-lowest chase rate in the Majors at 25.2 percent, according to Statcast. In the NL and AL Central divisions, only Cleveland (24.4) had a lower chase percentage.

The Cardinals have the third-lowest number of strikeouts in the Majors with 411, and are tied with the Mets for 15th with 182 walks.

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What has been lacking for the Cardinals is the slugging percentage. The Cardinals rank 27th in the Majors with a .374 team slugging percentage. They rank 25th in OPS with .669. And the Cardinals entered Monday ranked dead last with 114 extra-base hits. They also had the fifth-lowest average exit velocity in the Majors with 87.4 mph, according to Statcast.

“We’ve done some damage,” Shildt said. “We haven’t been able to put the consistent slug together, but we’ve moved the needle in a couple of areas that really elite offenses do. We just haven’t gotten the slug to match. If the slug comes with it, we’re a top four or five offense in baseball.

“The slug is not where it is. We’re getting good pitches to hit and doing the best we can with it. It’s not an indictment on anybody. We've got to look to do some damage in hitter’s counts a little more.”

The Cardinals have the opportunity to really pull themselves ahead in the NL Central standings early this week with the Reds and Brewers -- the two teams chasing the Cardinals for second place and a guaranteed playoff spot -- playing each other in Cincinnati. The Reds won Monday, putting them back in a tie with St. Louis for second place. The Cardinals hold the tiebreaker with a 6-4 season series record against the Reds.

To really pull away in the standings, and to cement their spot in October, the Cardinals will have to turn things around from Monday for the next seven scheduled games of the regular season.

“As you watch in the past couple games, it just kind of took that one hit to get everybody going,” second baseman Kolten Wong said. “We didn’t have that tonight, and it’s just kind of how it’s been. We haven’t had anything go our way. We’ve been grinding nonstop, trying to figure out ways to scratch runs across, scratch wins, and we just have to keep going. We’ve been through a tough stretch so far, and everyone’s a little tired, but we understand the goal ahead and we’re going to continue to fight and push through.”