The Phillies are headed to the National League Championship Series for the seventh time in their history and the opponent is a familiar team in blue.

For the fourth time, the Phils will play the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. The Phils beat the Dodgers for the 1983 NL pennant, but lost to them in 1977 and 1978.

While historians will hark back to the pain of Black Friday in 1977, this group of Phillies is focused squarely on the present and a rampaging Dodgers club that has a look of destiny after manhandling the 97-win Chicago Cubs in the division series.

"They're good and so are we," Phils reliever J.C. Romero said. "We need to have the same mentality we had against Milwaukee - one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, one game at a time."

Cole Hamels will get the ball against postseason stalwart Derek Lowe in Game 1 on Thursday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Lowe, a righthander with a power sinker, won three clinching games for Boston in the 2004 postseason and is one of the hottest pitchers on the planet. He was 6-1 with a 1.27 ERA over his final 10 regular-season starts, holding opponents to a .195 batting average over that span. He pitched six innings and allowed just two runs in a tone-setting win over the Cubs in Wrigley Field in Game 1 of the division series.

The Dodgers pitched brilliantly in that series, holding the Cubs to just six runs in three games. Righthander Chad Billingsley limited the Cubs to a run over 62/3 innings in Game 2. Hiroki Kuroda allowed just a run over 61/3 innings in Game 3. The Dodgers received excellent work from relievers Cory Wade (32/3 innings, one run) and closer Jonathan Broxton (31/3 innings, 0 runs) in the series.

The Phillies also pitched well in their division series against Milwaukee. They allowed nine earned runs in 35 innings for a 2.31 ERA.

"It's going to be a good series," manager Charlie Manuel said. "But I also think we can score runs on them."

At a quick glance, the Dodgers are deceptive. They won just 84 games, fewest of the eight playoff teams, and 13 clubs had better regular-season records. But the Dodgers are on a roll. Before stunning the Cubs, they went 17-8 in September to overtake Arizona for the NL West title. The Dodgers entered September three games under .500 and trailing first-place Arizona by 21/2 games. Twelve wins in a 13-game span put the Dodgers in first place to stay.

No team helped itself more at the trade deadline than the Dodgers, who picked up Manny Ramirez from Boston. He hit .396 with 17 homers and 53 RBIs after joining the club Aug. 1.

"I've never seen anyone that hot for two months," Dodgers third base coach Larry Bowa said.

Do the Dodgers win the division without Ramirez?

"I don't think so," manager Joe Torre said.

Ramirez continued to mash against the Cubs, hitting .500 (5 for 10) with two homers, three RBIs and four walks, two intentional.

"Any team with Manny changes for the better," Romero said. "If you take the mentality that you don't want someone to beat you, it would be Manny. If there's a situation where he can hurt us, we might take the bat away from him."

The Dodgers added another key piece to their lineup just before the playoffs. Shortstop and leadoff man Rafael Furcal is back after missing 125 games with a back injury. He scored four runs in three games against the Cubs.

"He's a Jimmy Rollins-type player for them," Phils manager Charlie Manuel said.

The Phils and Dodgers had the two best bullpen ERAs in the NL during the regular season, 3.22 and 3.34 respectively. They played each other eight times in August, with the Dodgers sweeping a four-game series in Los Angeles and the Phillies sweeping four in Philadelphia.