Phillies seal World Series berth

Jimmy Rollins (left) gave the Phillies a lead which they never surrendered

Philadelphia reached their first World Series since 1993 by clinching a 4-1 National League Championship Series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Jimmy Rollins set the Phillies on their way with a game-opening home run to set up a 5-1 victory in game five in LA.

Philadelphia, who won their only World Series in 1980, will now face either reigning champions Boston or Tampa Bay.

Tampa lead the Red Sox in the American League Championship Series 3-1 going into game five on Thursday in Boston.

The Phillies, founded in 1883, advanced to their sixth World Series. They last reached the best-of-seven showdown 15 years ago, when they lost to Toronto in six games.

Rollins led off a homer that put the Phillies ahead for good, then scored again on a single by Ryan Howard in the third inning.

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Pat Burrell followed by singling home Chase Utley to give Philadelphia a 3-0 lead.

Back-to-back errors by the Dodgers' Rafael Furcal in the fifth inning allowed Howard and Utley to score again and boost the Phillies' lead to 5-0.

Manny Ramirez put the Dodgers on the scoreboard in the sixth inning with a solo homer over the right-field wall off Philadelphia's Cole Hamels.

The Dodgers, who won the most recent of their six World Series titles in 1988, threatened with two base runners in the seventh inning, another in the eighth and yet another in the ninth.

But each time, the Phillies shut down Dodgers batters and kept the hosts off the scoreboard, retiring Nomar Garciaparra on a pop fly for the final out in the ninth.

"Your goal is always to go out and leave your mark on the game," Phillies slugger Ryan Howard said amidst a champagne-soaked celebration.

"This is special, now we have to go out and try to win the next series."

Rollins added: "Our goal is to win the World Series, not to win the National League Series. We look at it like we've qualified, now we have a chance."