Phillies dump Dodgers in NLCS, in World Series again

THE BEAUTY is supposed to lie in the end, in the timeless sound of wood uncorking from glass, in the mass of writhing bodies piled on grass, in the split second of palpable realization when the final out settles into a glove. These are the moments that turn a baseball campaign into a living, breathing metaphor, its rise and fall intertwined with the seasons that serve as its backdrop.

But yesterday afternoon, as Jayson Werth drove to the ballpark beneath a sun-drenched October sky, he could not escape the feeling that the celebration already had started, that at some point between Jimmy Rollins' two-out, walkoff double in Game 4 Monday night and the alarm clock going off on Wednesday morning, the Phillies had transformed from a team hoping to advance to its second straight World Series to a team that knew it would do so.

"When I woke up this morning, I felt like we were going to win,'' Werth said as he stood on the playing field late last night, an empty bottle of champagne in his right hand and a National League Champions hat on his head. "I didn't say that I was going to have a big game or do anything special, I was just saying that we were going to win. That was my mind-set all day. Driving to the park, when I got here, on my way in, walking down the ramp into the clubhouse, the vibe was good, and everybody was on the same page.''

One year and 6 days ago, the story was the newness of it all, the aforementioned split second of realization - Holy hell, we're going to the World Series - carrying well into the next morning.

Last night? Last night was something different. Last night was a prize fighter who already had withstood the best his opponent had to offer, already had endured the 35-degree chill of Denver and the 90-degree heat of Los Angeles and the three-run rally by the Rockies in Game 4 of the NLDS and the flame-throwing closer protecting a two-out lead in Game 4 of the NLCS.

Want to know what Game 5 last night felt like? It felt like an encore, a victory lap, one last exhibition of brutish strength in the form of a 10-4 victory over a Dodgers team that looked as if it knew it was beaten.

Yes, the Phillies are going to their second straight World Series, the first time a National League team can make that claim since 1996, when the world champion Atlanta Braves defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS. Yes, they are the first team in franchise history to achieve such a feat, leaving little doubt that the finest era in Phillies baseball exists in the present. Yes, the champagne still smelled sweet, and the party still rocked, as did the thousands of red-clad fans who lingered into the night.

Yet as the players streamed out of the dugout after Shane Victorino settled under a lazy fly ball off the bat of Ronnie Belliard to cap off the five-game series win, it was somehow different.

"We've got one more step,'' Ryan Howard said as he accepted his NLCS MVP Trophy, the spoils of a series in which he hit .333 with two home runs and eight RBI.

But last year, those words were touched with more than a hint of exuberance, of hopefullness, more bravado than confidence.

This year, the tone was that of a businessman addressing his colleagues, punctuated with a period and not an exclamation point.

"It's something I've been saying,'' Howard said later, a pair of plastic goggles protecting him from random drive-by sprayings. "We take it all in stride. The first step is making the playoffs. The second step is trying to get to the National League Championship Series. And the third step is trying to get to the World Series. We achieved our third step, and then the next step is just going out there and trying to win.''

For one night, they played like a team that had Howard's checklist hanging on the dugout wall.

After spending most of their first six victories of the postseason scratching and clawing and overcoming what at times seemed like insurmountable odds, the Phillies spent the last nine innings of the National League Championship Series sending long fly falls soaring deep into the night, each one feeling like a warning shot to whoever might be looking southward from the Bronx.

Lefthander Cole Hamels, who was on the mound for last year's NLCS clincher at Dodger Stadium, pitched 4 1/3 ho-hum innings, surrendering three solo home runs in his third straight mediocre playoff outing. But even the early exit of their 2008 playoff ace coud not dampen the palpable feeling that the series already had been won. The Phillies led 6-3 at the time, thanks in large part to a three-run home run by Werth in the first inning, a solo home run by Pedro Feliz in the second, and an RBI double by Raul Ibanez in the fourth. After J.A. Happ and Chad Durbin recorded the final two outs of the fifth with runners on first and second, the game turned into a showcase.

There was Durbin, at one point in September a question mark to make the postseason roster, retiring all four batters he faced. There was Victorino, hitting a two-run home run off Clayton Kershaw in the sixth. There was Werth, adding a a solo home run off Hong-Chih Kuo in the seventh and finshing 3-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored.

And, of course, there was Brad Lidge.

You remember him. The closer who lost his mojo. The Phillies' Achilles' heel. The relief pitcher without a role.

There he was, at the start of the ninth inning, just like last season, trotting out of the bullpen to heavy-metal music and taking his place atop the mound. They led by six runs at the time, the game well out of reach. But hearty roars from the sellout crowd followed each of his 17 pitches, the final sands of an hour glass drifting into what guys like Lidge always believed was their destiny.

"We really felt this year that we had the team,'' said Lidge, who pitched his fourth scoreless inning of the playoffs after finishing the regular season with a 7.21 ERA. "But obviously it's a long season, and it's a grind of a season. Last year, I think we needed the way I pitched to get there. This year, the rest of our guys played so great, I was able to have a rough year and we still got back. But obviously, in the postseason, everybody needs to be at their best to win. These guys are unbelievable, and I'm really proud to be a part of this team.''

The celebration looked as muted as one can after an LCS victory - plenty of champagne and beer, but also a feeling that this team had yet to exceed its expectations. In the end, the Phillies are where they always thought they'd be: one of the last two teams standing, in a position to defend their crown, waiting to find out who it will be that they face.

The beauty is in the end.

And the Phillies made it clear last night that they do not believe it has arrived.

For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.