Phillies take NL crown

Philadelphia Phillies' Brad Lidge reacts after winning Game 5 of the National League Championship baseball series over the Los Angeles Dodgers Thursday in Philadelphia. The Phillies defeated the Dodgers 10-4 to win the National League Championship.

PHILADELPHIA - Powered by Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth and all those other big bats, the Philadelphia Phillies are headed back to the World Series.

Werth hit two home runs, Shane Victorino and Pedro Feliz also connected and the defending champions beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-4 in Game 5 Wednesday night to win their second straight National League pennant.

Brad Lidge closed it out and manager Charlie Manuel's Phillies became the first team to reach consecutive World Series since the New York Yankees in 2000-01.

Now, Jimmy Rollins and crew wait for their next opponent. They'll go for their third World Series title beginning next Wednesday at New York or Los Angeles. The Yankees lead the Angels 3-1 in the ALCS.

Philadelphia overcame another shaky outing by 2008 NLCS and World Series MVP Cole Hamels.

Meanwhile, slugger Manny Ramirez, manager Joe Torre and the rest of the Dodgers go home after leading the NL with 95 wins in the regular season and sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the division series.

Los Angeles closed to 9-4 in the eighth, but Ryan Madson escaped a bases-loaded jam by striking out Russell Martin and retiring Casey Blake on a grounder to shortstop.

After beating Tampa Bay in last year's World Series, the Phillies are trying to become the first repeat champions from the NL since the Cincinnati Reds in 1975-76. The Yankees were the last team to win consecutive titles when they captured three in a row from 1998-2000.

Andre Ethier, James Loney and pinch-hitter Orlando Hudson hit solo homers for the Dodgers, who also lost to the Phillies in five games in last year's NLCS.

Fireworks exploded over Citizens Bank Park after Victorino caught a fly ball for the final out. The NL East champions, who beat Colorado in four games in the opening round, met Lidge in the middle of the diamond to celebrate.

Five pitchers tossed 42/3 strong innings in relief of an ineffective Hamels, who hasn't been the dominant ace he was last postseason. Chad Durbin earned the win by retiring all four batters he faced, including Ramirez representing the tying run in the fifth.

Lidge, who has bounced back from a rough season with a 0.00 ERA during the playoffs, worked a scoreless ninth.

Hamels allowed three runs and five hits in 41/3 innings. Still, he got a standing ovation on his way to the dugout.

Vicente Padilla, the former Phillie who was excellent in his first two playoff starts, lasted just three-plus innings and gave up six runs.

The teams combined to tie the record of seven homers in a postseason game. It was the fifth time that's happened.

Once considered the NL's laughingstock, the Phillies have been thinking dynasty since riding down Broad Street on flatbed trucks during the city's first championship parade in 25 years last October.

On the 29th anniversary of their first World Series title, the Phillies became the first NL team to win two straight pennants since the Atlanta Braves did it 13 years ago.

So what that they're the team of 10,000 losses? The sad-sack losers of the past are a distant memory in Philadelphia.

This will be Philadelphia's seventh trip to the World Series in 127 years. The Phillies beat Kansas City in 1980 and lost in 1915, 1950, 1983 and 1993. The Yankees swept Philadelphia in '50, winning the first three games of that series by one run.