LOS ANGELES — Jimmy Rollins got it started, Brad Lidge finished, and the losingest team in professional sports history was a winner.

A big winner.

The Philadelphia Phillies are going to the World Series for the first time in 15 years.

Rollins hit a leadoff homer and Cole Hamels pitched his third gem of the playoffs Wednesday night, sparking the Phillies past the mistake-prone Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 to win the best-of-seven NL championship series in five games.

"This is for the city of Philadelphia," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We have one more step, one big step — then we're going to make a grand parade."

For Manuel, it was an emotional night. His 87-year-old mother died Friday, shortly before the Phillies beat the Dodgers 8-5 in Game 2.

"I guarantee you my mom's watching right now," the 64-year-old skipper said after the clincher.

The Phillies became the first professional team to lose 10,000 games last year. Now, they'll go for their second World Series title beginning next Wednesday night at Tampa Bay or Boston. The Rays lead the Red Sox 3-1 in the ALCS, which resumes tonight at Fenway Park.

The Phillies will be carrying the hopes of a championship-starved city that hasn't had a title to celebrate since the 76ers swept the Lakers in the 1983 NBA finals.

"These guys are going crazy right now," slugger Ryan Howard said. "I can only imagine how it is in Philadelphia."

Back home, jubilant Phillies fans poured into the city streets, jumping on cars and celebrating.

Rollins, last year's NL MVP who dropped off considerably this year, also hit a leadoff homer in the first-round clincher at Milwaukee.

"This is definitely the first step," he said. "We've taken a lot of steps, but this is definitely the biggest step and the first step in the right direction. We've just to go out there and find a way to win four more."

The NL East champions, who didn't clinch a playoff berth until the final weekend of the season, took advantage of three errors by shortstop Rafael Furcal in the fifth inning and survived another homer by Manny Ramirez.

Lidge, perfect in 41 save opportunities during the season and five more in the playoffs, closed it out for the Phillies, who won their lone championship in 1980 by beating Kansas City in six games.

They also reached the World Series in 1915, 1950, 1983 and 1993, when they lost to Toronto in six games on Joe Carter's ninth-inning homer off Mitch Williams.

Ramirez homered in the sixth for the only Los Angeles run what might have been his final game with the Dodgers. The 36-year-old slugger can become a free agent after the World Series. After hitting .396 with 17 homers and 53 RBI in 53 games for the Dodgers after being acquired July 31 from the Boston Red Sox and .520 with four homers, 10 RBI and 11 walks in eight playoff games.

"It was a great experience," Ramirez said before joking: "I want to see who is the highest bidder. The gasoline (price) is up, so I'm up."

Hamels, the series MVP, limited the Dodgers to five hits in seven innings. The 24-year-old lefty has allowed three runs in 22 innings during the postseason, with two wins over Los Angeles and another over the Brewers in the first round. He'll have ample rest to pitch Game 1 of the World Series.

"We were able to enjoy this moment," Hamels said. "To get an award like this is something surreal."

Dodgers manager Joe Torre came up short in the postseason again. He won four World Series in his first five years as manager of New York from 1996-2000, but hasn't won one since. This was his first year as the Dodgers' skipper after 12 with the Yankees.

"I was proud to be their manager," Torre said. "This was an up-and-down year. I think they learned a lot. They learned to come together. This game tonight got a little ugly in the middle with the defense, but they never stopped plugging away."