ST. LOUIS (AP) — Madison Bumgarner once again put the San Francisco Giants well on the road to a playoff victory.

Bumgarner pitched shutout ball into the eighth inning, and the Giants combined just enough hitting with a couple defensive flubs by St. Louis to beat the Cardinals 3-0 Saturday night in the NL Championship Series opener.

Bumgarner set a major league postseason record with 26 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings on the road.

“That’s pretty cool,” he said. “There’s stats for everything nowadays. I’ve happened to have a little extra good luck on the road.”

Maybe, though his numbers show that perhaps it’s more than luck. In four postseason road starts, he’s 4-0 with an 0.59 ERA.

The left-hander, already a key part of two World Series championship teams in San Francisco, was in complete command.

But 20-game winner Adam Wainwright made another early exit for the Cardinals. In his two playoff outings this month, he’s failed to last even five innings.

“I think there’s a scenario out there where I give up one run,” Wainwright said. “As ugly as it was, I would say my arm felt better than last time.”

Pablo Sandoval got three hits as San Francisco won for the 12th time in its past 13 postseason games, including three straight victories to erase a 3-1 deficit in the 2012 NLCS against St. Louis.

“Man, exciting to be in October, you know,” Sandoval said. “Last year, I was home watching the game on TV.”

Jake Peavy gets the Game 2 start for the Giants against Lance Lynn on Saturday.

Bumgarner, who began the playoffs by throwing a shutout at Pittsburgh in the wild-card game, gave up four hits in 7 2/3 innings.

Bumgarner bested the mark of 23 straight postseason scoreless innings on the road set by Art Nehf of the New York Giants from 1921-24.

The Cardinals’ threatened him only in the seventh, on consecutive one-out singles by Yadier Molina and Jon Jay, but Kolten Wong tapped out and pinch hitter Tony Cruz fanned.

The Giants’ bullpen finished with hitless relief as Sergio Romo got the last out in the eighth and Santiago Casilla closed for a save.

Wainwright was 20-9 during the regular season, including 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA in September with two complete games and a shutout. He’s piled up a major league-high 512 2/3 innings the past two years.

The right-hander admitted before this series that his pitching elbow had bothered him during a start in the division series at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s not 100 percent,” Wainwright said. “I think it was 100 percent better than it was the last time I pitched — I’ll say that.”

In two October starts this year, Wainwright has permitted eight earned runs in nine innings. He’s 0-4 with a 5.14 ERA in his past five postseason appearances. He lasted 4 2/3 innings against the Giants after going just 4 1/3 innings in the NLDS opener against Los Angeles.

The Cardinals twice failed to seal the deal defensively in the Giants’ two-run second.

Third baseman Matt Carpenter’s fielding error with the bases loaded on Gregor Blanco’s soft one-hop liner at his feet was the Cardinals’ first error of the postseason.

Sandoval doubled to start the inning, when rookie right fielder Randal Grichuk gloved the ball but couldn’t hang on as he ran into the wall. Travis Ishikawa, 0-for-5 with five strikeouts and a walk against Wainwright, had an RBI single on a jam-shot bloop just over Carpenter’s head in shallow left.

Wong misplayed a double-play ball at second base in the third, and Brandon Belt’s sacrifice fly made it 3-0.

“We make a few plays, and we can still be out there playing right now,” manager Mike Matheny said.

NEXT UP

Giants: Getting reunited with Bruce Bochy helped the 40-year-old Peavy turn back the clock. He worked 5 2/3 scoreless innings and won the division opener against Washington, a continuation on a strong finish — 6-4 with a 2.17 ERA — after Boston dealt him to the Giants at the July trading deadline.

Cardinals: Lynn has been a solid No. 2 behind Wainwright, an innings-eater who has better learned to take setbacks in stride. He’s won at least 15 games all three years in the rotation. This year, he worked three or fewer runs in all but four of his 33 starts, and he’s 27-12 at home in his career. “I’ll still say he’s probably one of the most underrated pitchers in the game,” manager Mike Matheny said.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Michael Morse was added to the Giants’ roster in place of rookie outfielder Gary Brown, but he did not play. Morse had been limited to two at-bats since Aug. 31 due to a strained oblique muscle. Brown was on the division roster but was not used.

— Associated Press —

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Matt Adams and the Cardinals are moving on. Clayton Kershaw and the Dodgers are going home.

Again.

St. Louis tagged Kershaw in the seventh inning for the second straight time, riding Adams’ go-ahead, three-run homer to a 3-2 victory over Los Angeles on Tuesday and a fourth consecutive trip to the NL Championship Series.

“I don’t think I touched the ground the whole way around the bases,” Adams said. “Definitely the highlight of my career. … I will never, ever forget this.”

Neither will Kershaw.

“The season ended and I was a big part of the reason why,” Kershaw said. “I can’t really put it into words, Just bad deja vu all over again.”

Following their 3-1 win in the best-of-five series, the Cardinals await San Francisco or Washington with their rotation well-rested for the NLCS, which starts Saturday. They will open at home against the Giants, who ousted the Nationals later Tuesday night.

Trevor Rosenthal allowed two runners in the ninth before getting Carl Crawford on a game-ending groundout for his third save of the series. At AT&T Park in San Francisco, fans cheered when the rival Dodgers were eliminated.

“It was awesome, everything we did throughout that game,” starter Shelby Miller said. “It was a heck of a game and a lot of fun, I know that.”

An overwhelming favorite to win his third NL Cy Young Award in four years, Kershaw’s October resume is a wreck.

Kershaw dropped to 1-5 with a 5.12 ERA in 11 postseason games, including three relief appearances early in his career. He has lost four straight starts to St. Louis over the past two postseasons.

“I’ve had success against them, too,” Kershaw said. “It just seems like one inning gets me every time. And obviously that’s not success.”

While the steady Cardinals advanced to their ninth NLCS in 15 years, the defeat was a huge disappointment for the NL West champion Dodgers, who finished the regular season with a $256 million payroll that was $40 million higher than any other team.

Los Angeles remains without a pennant since winning the 1988 World Series.

Manager Don Mattingly wasn’t about to second-guess leaving Kershaw in the game, especially with a bullpen that’s foundered. He wanted the lefty to get three more outs.

“It goes back to the same question: Is there anybody better, even on short rest, and even where he was at that point?” Mattingly said.

Kershaw started on three days’ rest for the second time in his postseason career. He was dominant into the seventh, as he was in Game 1, but again started the inning with three straight hits.

The third hit Tuesday came when Adams drove a curveball on Kershaw’s 102nd pitch into the right-center bullpen to put St. Louis up 3-2. Adams thrust his hands over his head in the batter’s box then jumped several times as he ran down the first base line. A stunned Kershaw bent over on the mound, head hung and hands on his knees.

“I had a pretty good idea that it was gone,” Adams said.

Kershaw allowed one homer to left-handed hitters while going 21-3 with a 1.77 ERA in the regular season. He gave up two to the Cardinals, with Matt Carpenter connecting in the opener. The left-handed ace is 0-3 with a 9.72 ERA in his last three postseason appearances, including St. Louis’ clinching Game 6 victory in the NLCS last year.

Reliever Marco Gonzales earned his second victory of the series, after getting treated for a nosebleed. The rookie lefty got Adrian Gonzalez on a groundout to end the seventh and strand two runners.

Pat Neshek worked a perfect eighth for the second straight game and Rosenthal pitched the ninth for a second straight day, receiving two visits to the mound from catcher Yadier Molina and one from the pitching coach after a shaky start to the inning.

Kershaw had yielded only one hit through six innings and struck out nine, including three in a row in the sixth.

But Matt Holliday opened the seventh with a sharp single up the middle off second baseman Dee Gordon’s glove, and Jhonny Peralta lined another single before Adams homered off a left-hander for the first time since July 7.

The Cardinals had an NL-low 105 homers this season and left-hander batters had only eight homers against lefty pitching. But lefties hit five off Dodgers southpaws in four playoff games.

Miller matched Kershaw into the sixth, when the Dodgers started the inning with two hits. They scored a run on Matt Kemp’s double-play grounder and added another on Juan Uribe’s RBI single against Seth Maness.

But Los Angeles wasted a chance to add on when Andre Ethier, playing in place of Yasiel Puig, was picked off third by Molina — a call overturned by video review.

Miller went 5 2/3 innings in his first postseason start.

Both pitchers likely benefited the first few innings from late-afternoon shadows mixed with brilliant sunlight.

Kershaw piled up five strikeouts the first time through the order. The Cardinals got the ball out of the infield for the first time on Carpenter’s routine fly on a checked swing leading off the fourth.

UP NEXT

Cardinals: Adam Wainwright gets extra rest after a Game 1 dud when he was charged with six runs in 4 1/3 innings at Dodger Stadium. He was 5-0 with a 1.38 ERA in September with two complete games, one of them a shutout.

FIRST PITCH

Scott Rolen, who earned three of his seven Gold Gloves at third base and was a key member of two World Series teams, threw out the first pitch.

— Associated Press —