All autumn, struggling aces have littered baseball’s postseason landscape. Clayton Kershaw. Jon Lester. Max Scherzer, and others. At a time of year when pitching tends to rule, not every team’s ace has done what aces do. Then there’s Madison Bumgarner.

The Giants pitched, hit and fielded better than the opposition on Saturday. That’s the closest thing to a guaranteed formula for success. Here are five things we learned from the Giants’ 3-0 victory behind Madison Bumgarner at Adam Wainwright’s expense in an uncommonly quiet Busch Stadium.

One of the best defensive teams in the National League had an off-night on Saturday during Game 1 of the NL Championship Series. While the Cardinals committed but one error in a 3-0 loss to the Giants at Busch Stadium, their inability to make a key catch and turn a double play certainly fed into their defensive woes.

Terrance Gore normally comes out of the dugout expecting to steal second base, but on Saturday night, his speed played a different role — keeping the O’s off-guard while he scored the go-ahead run.

Madison Bumgarner dazzled in the postseason yet again and the Giants scraped across three early-inning runs off Adam Wainwright en route to defeating the Cardinals in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, 3-0, on Saturday night at Busch Stadium. Here’s what you should know from Game 1.

Top of the ninth, score tied, speedy pinch-runner Terrance Gore with the go-ahead run standing on second. Up to the plate walked Alcides Escobar, who was 0-for-4 and had yet to hit the ball out of the infield. Escobar delivered a clutch go-ahead double.

It never gets routine. But watch the Royals’ late-inning relievers hang up enough zeros and it will start to seem routine, writes columnist Phil Rogers.

With the Royals taking a commanding lead in the American League Championship Series, via a second thriller in as many nights in Baltimore, and the Giants riding the left arm of Madison Bumgarner to a National League Championship Series win in St. Louis, a Saturday doubleheader proved to be a compelling next chapter in an epic postseason.

Rookie catcher Caleb Joseph was a bright spot for the Orioles in Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Royals at Camden Yards in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series.

For the second consecutive night, Baltimore watched a short start lead to late-game disappointment. Closer Zach Britton, fresh off walking the bases loaded one night earlier, surrendered two ninth-inning runs, one of which was charged to Darren O’Day, in Saturday’s 6-4 loss to the Royals in Game 2 of the ALCS.

Lorenzo Cain was all over the place on Saturday, as he made his mark on the Royals’ 6-4 win over the Orioles in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series at Camden Yards. Through it all, MLB Advanced Media’s Statcast technology was there to quantify Cain’s athletic ability.

The Orioles could not have gotten this far without their bullpen, a group that helped guide Baltimore to the American League East crown and a three-game sweep of the Tigers in the AL Division Series. But two of their biggest pieces, closer Zach Britton and right-hander Darren O’Day, have been thrust into October’s spotlight and it’s not exactly been a flattering light.

Amid a postseason awakening 29 years in the making, the Royals are witnessing one of their promising young sluggers burst to life at precisely the same time. Mike Moustakas launched his fourth homer of the playoffs in Saturday’s 6-4 victory over the Orioles, tying Willie Mays Aikens’ 1980 club record for home runs in one postseason.

If there is one sequence from Game 2 of the American League Championship Series that figured to haunt the Orioles on their flight to Kansas City, it came in the bottom of the seventh inning of an eventual 6-4 loss.

Adam Jones’ free swinging has prevented him from having postseason success. But Saturday, he took Yordano Ventura deep to tie the game in the third, and recorded his first career postseason multi-hit game.

A look at some of the more intriguing tidbits from the Royals’ 6-4 victory over the Orioles in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series on Saturday night at Camden Yards.

Yordano Ventura left Game 2 of the ALCS on Saturday during the middle of an at-bat with two outs in the sixth inning because of tightness in his right shoulder, but it’s considered a minor injury for the Royals’ rookie right-hander, who expects to be available in time for another postseason start.