PHILADELPHIA — Ryan Howard added another piece of hardware with three familiar letters to his trophy case.

Howard was picked MVP of the NL championship series after helping the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies return to the World Series by beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-4 in Game 5 on Wednesday night.

The big slugger already had the 2006 NL MVP and 2005 NL Rookie of the Year awards on his resume. Now, he's got an October memento, too.

"It's definitely something special," Howard said. "Right now I'm going to go celebrate, enjoy myself a little bit."

Howard hit .333 (5 for 15) with two homers, one double, one triple and eight RBIs in the series. He had at least one RBI in eight straight postseason games, tying the major league record first set by Lou Gehrig more than seven decades ago. Howard's streak ended when he failed to knock in a run in the clincher.

Throughout the postseason, television cameras have caught Howard in a trancelike state before his at-bats. He sits in the dugout with his head down, eyes closed, hands resting on the knob of his bat and visualizes what he's going to do at the plate.

Whatever is going through his mind, it's working.

"I think that's his way of focusing and basically getting ready," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "I think that he's thinking about his at-bat and things that he has going for him and how he wants to feel and everything when he gets up there.

"Visualization is part of hitting. You can do it once you walk up to the plate and you can step out and look around, things like that, and kind of gather your thoughts, or you can sit in the dugout there, too, and kind of visualize things and really concentrate on what you want to do. It depends on the person and how he feels."

Howard has delivered several clutch hits in the playoffs.