Pitching-duel hype was just . . . hype

The Phillies' Roy Halladay was not perfect and the San Francisco Giants, particularly Cody Ross, hit him.

San Francisco's Tim Lincecum was not nearly as dominant as he had been in his previous outing against Atlanta and the Phillies scuffed him some, too.

In short, the game billed as the Mother of all Pitching Matchups featured two aces at less than their best in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Both pitchers lasted seven innings and all that mattered at the end of the night was that the Giants walked away with a 4-3 victory that sent the Phillies to their first Game 1 loss since the 2007 National League division series when they were swept in three games by Colorado.

Here were some keys to the evening:

The criticism of the Braves when they managed just two hits and struck out 14 times in their 1-0 Game 1 division series loss to Lincecum was that they chased way too many pitches out of the strike zone. With a few exceptions, the Phillies showed far more patience against the long-haired, deceptive righthander who drew hilarious sex-object whistles from the crowd whenever he stepped into the batter's box.

Carlos Ruiz's third-inning home run was an example of that patience. After taking two fastballs out of the strike zone, the catcher jumped on a high fastball on the outside part of the plate and deposited it into the right-field seats.

A similar solid approach by Jayson Werth resulted in a two-run home run that pulled the Phillies within a run in bottom of the sixth inning.

After falling behind in the count 1-2 against Lincecum, Werth took a ball and fouled off a borderline pitch up in the strike zone before sending a fastball over the right-field wall for his 12th career postseason home run.

The two hitters who did not show much plate discipline against Lincecum were Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins.

Howard doubled on a first-pitch fastball in the second inning, but with runners at second and third and two outs in the third, he struck out. After working the count to 2-0, he fouled off a change-up with a healthy cut in the strike zone, but he helped Lincecum on the next two pitches by swinging and missing at pitches out of the strike zone. In his sixth-inning at-bat, Howard chased a slider and change-up out of the strike zone and struck out.

Rollins, meanwhile, popped out once and struck out twice against Lincecum and was guilty of swinging at a total of seven pitches out of the strike zone.

With Lincecum out of the game, Rollins did show some initial patience in his final at-bat of the night in the bottom of the eighth inning against Giants closer Brian Wilson. He looked at five straight pitches to work a 3-2 count before fouling off a slider in the strike zone. Rollins then reverted to chasing pitches out of the zone, fouling off a slider before swinging through an outside fastball, ending the inning.

Rollins is 1 for 15 in the postseason.

Shane Victorino also got himself out by swinging at two change-ups out of the strike zone in the seventh inning.

Roy Oswalt said Friday that the thing he admired most about Halladay was the righthander's ability to throw so many strikes without getting hurt by that approach.

"His ability to throw in the strike zone all the time and not give up hits is amazing," Oswalt said. "Usually when guys throw in the strike zone as much as he does, they give up a few more hits."

Halladay threw a total of 105 pitches, including 73 for strikes, against the Giants and he was hurt by that approach. The best example came on two home runs by Ross, the Giants' midseason addition who is becoming a postseason hero.

On the other hand, Halladay threw a pitch to Pat Burrell that appeared to catch enough of the plate to be a called third strike in the top of the sixth inning, but he did not get the call from home-plate umpire Derryl Cousins. Burrell hit the next pitch - a fastball that was too good of a strike - for an RBI double and before the inning was over the Giants had taken a 4-1 lead.

After retiring 20 batters in a row and going 35 in a row without allowing a hit, Halladay's streak of brilliance finally ended in the top of the third inning against the Giants. With one out and the count at 1-1, Halladay threw Ross a fastball that caught too much of the plate and the Giants' No. 8 hitter blasted it into the left-field seats for the first run of the NLCS and the first postseason hit or run allowed by the Phillies' ace.

During his streak of 35 hitless batters, Halladay threw first-pitch strikes to 31 of those hitters, including six of the first seven batters Saturday night.

How shaken was Halladay after Ross ended his hitless and scoreless streak with one swing?

The unflappable righthander struck out the next two batters - Lincecum and Andres Torres - to end the inning.

The second time Ross connected against Halladay, it was definitely shame on the pitcher.

After missing inside and then outside with a couple fastballs, he tried to sneak a fastball by Ross in the strike zone. The undersized rightfielder jumped all over the pitch and hit a line drive over the left-field wall to give the Giants a 2-1 lead.