Phil Sheridan: Ailing ace does part for team

SAN FRANCISCO - It isn't easy to outdo a historic playoff no-hitter, and there was nothing easy about what Roy Halladay did here Thursday night.

He pitched the biggest game of his career on one leg, outdueling two-time, two-legged Cy Young Award-winner Tim Lincecum and keeping the Phillies alive in the National League Championship Series.

The Halladay who pitched a perfect game in May and a no-hitter in his playoff debut was a smooth, nearly robotic out machine. The Halladay who won Game 5, 4-2, was 100-percent human - emotional, fallible, vulnerable, injured.

Halladay strained a groin muscle in his right leg - the leg he drives off to put power behind his pitches - while throwing a second-inning fastball. He pitched four more innings after that, supplementing his diminished fastball with an array of biting curveballs and change-ups.

"It wasn't ideal," Halladay said with characteristic understatement. "We had the same game plan, but I had to find another way to get it there."

What Halladay did here was tougher than what he did to the Cincinnati Reds. He pitched in pain, he pitched in rain. He pitched smart and with heart. He worked harder to deliver six good innings than he did to pitch nine brilliant, no-hit innings in the division series.

"It won't go down as this," reliever Brad Lidge said, "but I think it was one of the most impressive outings he's ever had. He gutted out, with a lot less than 100 percent out there. Despite not having one of his legs underneath him, he was able to keep the lead in our favor. That was huge for us. You can't really imagine how important that is, to give our bullpen that many innings like that, with an injury."

The bullpen came through spectacularly, but it was Halladay who held the Giants in check long enough for the Phillies to scratch out a few runs against Lincecum. Now they need Roy Oswalt to force a Game 7 and Cole Hamels to deliver one more gem.

"I think everybody has to feel good about our situation," Halladay said. "We're going back to our place and, really, have two of our best pitchers down the stretch going out there. We've got to win two games, and we've got two great pitchers going out there."

The Giants learned Thursday night that it's hard to close out a series against an experienced team and especially against very good pitching. Going back to Philadelphia, the pressure is only going to ratchet up a couple thousand notches.