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Blanton, Burrell lead Phillies to NLCS

Oct 5, 2008 - 9:30 PM MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- It took 15 years, but the Philadelphia Phillies are back on the doorstep of the World Series.

Joe Blanton was strong for six-plus innings and the Phillies clubbed four homers Sunday en route to clinching their first postseason series win since 1993 with a 6-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game Four of the National League Division Series.

Pat Burrell snapped an 0-for-12 postseason slump with a single in the second inning and followed it up with a pair of home runs for Philadelphia.

The Phillies will be making their first NLCS appearance since they defeated the Atlanta Braves in six games in 1993.

"This is what you hope for as a player," Burrell said. "Unfortunately, it took a while to get here, but it makes it all the sweeter now that we're here."

Jimmy Rollins led off the game with a homer off Brewers starter Jeff Suppan (0-1) and Jayson Werth homered for Philadelphia, which will host Game One of the NL Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday.

"I don't see no reason in the world why we can't stay right with them," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of the Dodgers. "It's going to be a good series. I like our chances. I think we can hold our own with them."

The Phillies and Dodgers locked up in the NLCS in 1977, 1978 and 1983.

"Fifteen years ago, I was still in high school, so we feel good," Rollins said. "Everything is lining up the way we want it to. We have a couple days off here to get ready for LA and get ready to roll."

Blanton (1-0) had no trouble making the homers stand up, allowing one run and five hits while striking out seven and not surrendering a walk. The burly righthander, who was acquired in a July trade with the Oakland Athletics, allowed a leadoff homer to Prince Fielder and a single to J.J. Hardy in the seventh before yielding to Ryan Madson.

"We got in a great rhythm early and I really tried not to change anything once runners got on, because it was working when nobody was on," Blanton said. "They've got a lot of home run power, and a couple guys get on and they can really get back in a game quick. So I just kept trying to attack the zone and hopefully good things would happen."

Burrell, who entered the game with three homers in 21 career at-bats against Suppan, came up with two on and two out in the third after Milwaukee chose to intentionally walk Ryan Howard. Burrell made them pay for that decision, driving a 2-2 pitch deep into the stands in left-center field to give Philadelphia a 4-0 lead.

"It was just a matter of time before they pitched around him to get to me," Burrell said. "I was feeling pretty good today and got a couple big hits."

Werth followed with a solo blast to push the lead to 5-0.

Suppan was lifted for a pinch hitter in the bottom of the third and charged with five runs and six hits. The veteran righthander walked two and struck out three.

"He hit the pitch I wanted to throw, but he hit it in a location where I didn't want to throw it," Suppan said of Burrell's blast. "I thought I could go up an in and what I did, I ended up throwing it down the middle, and good hitters hit balls down the middle."

Milwaukee chose to start Suppan over Manny Parra, Seth McClung and Yovani Gallardo despite a 3-6 career record with a 6.13 ERA in 12 starts against the Phillies. Six of Philadelphia's eight starting position players entered with batting averages of .300 or better against Suppan.

"Obviously, you'd like to have that pitch back (to Burrell), but there was never any doubt that he was going to be our fourth-game starter," Brewers interim manager Dale Sveum said.

The Brewers added a run on Ryan Braun's single in the eighth and had a runner on second with one out in the ninth. But Brad Lidge struck out rookie Brad Nelson and forced Jason Kendall to ground out to Rollins at shortstop to end the game.

"The goal today was to put some runs on the board early and try and take the crowd out of it and play as well as we can," Lidge said. "Pat had a huge day for us and that put them on their heels a little bit. It's tough to come back against a guy like (Blanton), the way he was throwing today."

Milwaukee has not won a postseason series since beating the California Angels in the 1982 ALCS.

"You have to be there to learn what it's like," Hardy said. "We made it (to the playoffs) and we understand what it's like, and we can build from that and see what happens. We learned what playoff baseball is like, how loud the crowd can get and the pitchers don't make mistakes as much. It was a good experience for all of us."