Manny Ramirez is now free to shower anytime he wants.

The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-4 to advance to the their second straight World Series.  Philadelphia will face the winner of the ALCS (Yankees are leading that series 3 games to 1).

In a game that saw both teams garner 8 hits, the Phillies smacked six extra base hits.  They got 4 home runs – including two by slugger Jayson Werth – which sparked their scoring outburst.

Ryan Howard was named MVP of the 2009 NLCS.

Philadelphia was quite effective with its offense.  The club had only 8 hits, drew 4 walks and only left 8 runners on base.  The defending World Champions were extremely productive in clutch situations, with Werth and Shane Victorino combining to drive in 6 runs with 2 outs.  By contrast, the Dodgers left 15 runners on base.

L.A. was ultimately doomed by its inability to control the big bats in the Phillies’ lineup.  With the exception of a 2-1 victory in Game 2, the Dodgers were blasted by an aggressive Phillies’ team stacked with good hitters. 

For now, the Dodgers can only think of what could have been.  Having lost 8 of its last 10 NLCS games (all to the Phillies), Joe Torre will have yet another year to come up with a game plan to surplant Philadelphia from atop the NL perch.

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