Sam Donnellon: Halladay gets by with guts and guile

SAN FRANCISCO - He said it the other day.

He says it all the time.

"The bottom line is the final score," Roy Halladay told people dissecting his previous two postseason starts and his well-chronicled struggles against the Giants. "How you get there doesn't always necessarily matter as much."

Halladay and the Phillies got there the most excruciating way possible in last night's 4-2, Game 5 victory. From the moment he tweaked his groin while striking out Cody Ross to start the second, to the final pitch he threw to end the sixth - another strikeout, this was a grind with a big G. Shortening his stride to compensate for the discomfort, sacrificing both speed on his fastball and his customary pinpoint control, the Phillies' ace also scraped and scuffled through some chilling downpours and some uncustomary emotions throughout, but left with a one-run lead, with his team in position to push this National League Championship Series back to Philadelphia.

"He's a man," said Jayson Werth, who provided a towering insurance home run in the ninth inning. "He definitely goes out there and competes. He was not going to give up."

"It's not ideal," Halladay said. "But I think, at this point, nobody wants to come out. So you do whatever you can to find ways to make adjustments."

When Halladay walked struggling Andres Torres on a 3-2 pitch to start the game, it was a prelude to what would follow. A sharp single, another misplayed doubleplay ball, this time by Chase Utley, and for the fourth time in five games, the Giants had the early advantage.

Halladay came back to strike out Pat Burrell looking. Burrell stood in the batter's box to discuss the call, and Halladay, who felt he had been squeezed in Torres' at-bat, stared at the conversation as he exited the mound. Burrell screamed at Halladay. Normally a sea of calm, the placid ace was shown on television cameras seething in the dugout.

Those emotions took on a new direction the next inning after the pitch to Ross. It was all about survival now. He threw slow breaking balls and slower breaking balls and the Giants swatted one spectacular foul ball after another. The oohs and aahs that followed opponents' swings might have exceeded the amount heard in road games all season.