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PHILADELPHIA — Neither pitcher had allowed a run in his playoff debut the week before, with one throwing a no-hitter on a Wednesday and the other striking out 14 in a two-hit shutout on a Thursday that was nearly as dominant. With those command performances as the backdrop, expectations were high coming into Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. But the two aces, Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum, would fall a little short in their encore presentations.
Giants starter Tim Lincecum, who struck out 14 in his playoff debut, was not nearly as overpowering against the Phillies. 
Keep up with the latest news on The Times's baseball blog.The two allowed a pair of home runs and failed to make it into the eighth inning.
Halladay, owner of only the second no-hitter in postseason history, gave up four runs and eight hits in seven innings, including two homers to the Giants’ No. 8 hitter, outfielder Cody Ross. In comparison with his near perfection against the Reds in the National League division series on Oct. 6, this outing by Halladay seemed like incompetence, even though on many other nights it could have been good enough to earn a victory.
Lincecum also failed to reach the eighth inning. He gave up three runs and six hits, including home runs by Carlos Ruiz and Jayson Werth, and struck out six fewer batters than he did in his previous start against the Braves in the National League division series on Oct. 7. But it was good enough to win as the Giants beat the Phillies, 4-3, and took Game 1 in the best-of-seven series. Game 2 is Sunday night. Over the last 18 years, only three teams that have lost Game 1 of the N.L.C.S. have gone on to win the series.
Halladay, after setting down the first seven batters he faced to extend his no-hit streak to 12 innings going back to his last regular-season game, gave up his first hit and run of his postseason career in one swing. Ross hit the first of his two home runs off a 93 mile-per-hour, 1-1 fastball, and it landed several rows into the stands beyond left center field, shattering Halladay’s cloak of invincibility and near perfection. He would not become the first pitcher ever to throw consecutive no-hitters in the postseason.
And according to the Elias Sports Bureau, he also just missed tying Don Larsen’s record for consecutive hitless at-bats in the postseason at 35 set during the 1956 World Series for the Yankees. Had he forced Ross to make an out in that at-bat, Halladay would have tied Larsen.
After the home run, Halladay briefly reverted to form, striking out Lincecum and Andres Torres to end the inning. And in the bottom of the third, the Phillies struck back against Lincecum, and in similar fashion. Carlos Ruiz drilled a high 93 m.p.h. fastball the opposite way on a 2-0 offering, and the ball went into the right-field bleachers to tie the score at 1-1.
Shockingly, Halladay allowed two hits in the fourth inning alone, but did not allow a run in that frame as he induced a ground ball off the bat of shortstop Juan Uribe that resulted in a force play at second base. But in the top of the fifth, Ross struck again. With one out, Halladay put a fat, 91 m.p.h. fastball into the middle of the strike zone and Ross did not miss. He sent it over the wall in left field, not quite as far as the first one but also never in doubt once it left the bat.
In 28 plate appearances against Halladay in the last series, Halladay never gave up a hit, but here was Ross, who was picked up on a straight waiver claim from the Marlins on Aug. 22, hitting two home runs in his first two at-bats against Halladay in the N.L.C.S. Coming into the series, Ross had only three hits in 16 at-bats against Halladay, all singles. He now has three home runs in the postseason.
When the game started, Halladay set down the first seven Giants, and threw first-pitch strikes to 8 of the first 10 batters he faced. But there were early indications that he did not have the same kind of stuff he had during the his stellar start 10 days before. Even on some of the outs, the Giants hit the ball hard, including on the first pitch of the game when center fielder Andres Torres lined sharply to Shane Victorino in center.
With two outs in the eighth inning, Giants Manager Bruce Bochy called upon his closer, Brian Wilson, to get a four-out save. Wilson allowed a single to Werth but struck out Jimmy Rollins on a full-count, 95 mile per hour fastball to end the potential threat. In the ninth inning, Wilson struck out the side to end the game.
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