This story was excerpted from John Denton’s Cardinals Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

ST. LOUIS -- Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol made the completely sound move late Wednesday night, removing closer Ryan Helsley rather than asking him to pitch a third inning. Marmol turned the game over to the usually reliable Giovanny Gallegos, the team’s most consistent reliever over a rocky first month.

As has been the case with most things surrounding the Cardinals of late, the right move netted the completely wrong result. Within minutes, everything completely combusted in their faces as Gallegos surrendered two home runs, four hits and three earned runs. What would have been one of the season’s best victories, morphed into another stomach-turning loss that elicited boos from the Busch Stadium crowd.

When Marmol was asked about the boo-birds directed at the Redbirds after the Cardinals' 6-4 collapse, he wanted anyone listening to know that he and his team are just as disgusted by the bad start as the fanbase. Between the poor starting pitching, spotty hitting and a bullpen that has squandered six of 10 save opportunities, the problems are aplenty for the Cardinals. Not caring about a season gone badly awry is not one of those problems, Marmol stressed.

“Do you think they’re more frustrated than us?” Marmol asked rhetorically. “That clubhouse is extremely frustrated. … So, to sit here and think that other people are more frustrated than the people in this clubhouse, it’s insane, absolutely insane.

“Every coach in that clubhouse loses sleep over how to improve what's going on at the moment,” Marmol continued. “That's the only thing that crosses your mind every minute of the day, and that's why this organization has been good for a long time. So, when you say the fan base is [upset], we want to deliver for this city; that's what you wake up for every day. Trust me, we don't mind that accountability. That's also why we wake up every day, because it drives us knowing that if we do well, things go well; if you don't [win], people are pissed. That drives me and it drives everybody in that clubhouse. So, if you think other people are more frustrated than [the team] within these [clubhouse] walls, you're crazy.”

Until the Cardinals can figure out ways to put complete efforts together, frustration will likely continue to be the prevailing emotion at Busch Stadium. The starting staff has mostly fallen flat and is hoping for a lift from the returning Adam Wainwright. A lineup expected to be deep has been anything but that with superstar cleanup hitter Nolan Arenado uncharacteristically lagging. Throw in a stretch of poor defense and a leaky bullpen, and it equals an underachieving team that’s been anything but the championship contender it expected to be.

That equates to plenty of frustration to go around -- from the manager, from the players and from the fanbase.