Oct. 6 -- GAME 4 WRAP: OLD RELIABLES

BY SCOTT LAUBER

MILWAUKEE -- Jimmy Rollins still remembers when he met Pat Burrell.

It was 1994 at the Area Code Games, an annual showcase for the nation's best high-school baseball players. Rollins was a pint-sized shortstop from Oakland; Burrell was a strapping slugger from San Jose. And one night, after they were finished on the field, Rollins and some friends invited Burrell and a buddy into their room to play dice.

"Three rolls later, they're both sitting on the bed and watching us play dice," Rollins said. "That's how I met Pat."

Over the years, Burrell has had chances to win a rematch. Many chances. In 1996, Rollins was drafted by the Phillies, who selected Burrell in the first round two years later. They both joined the team in 2000 and have been there for the past nine seasons, making them the second-longest tenured teammates in the National League behind only Atlanta's Chipper Jones and John Smoltz.

So, yesterday, as the Phillies ousted the Milwaukee Brewers with a 6-2 win in Game 4 of the NL Division Series and advanced to the League Championship Series for the first time since 1993, it seemed only fitting that Rollins and Burrell led the way.

Rollins, always the sparkplug, launched a leadoff home run in the first inning, quieting the ThunderStix-clapping sellout crowd at Miller Park and sapping any momentum gathered by the Brewers after their Game 3 victory Saturday night.

"Jimmy's the catalyst," Burrell said. "When he goes, we go."

Then Burrell, 0-for-8 in the Division Series and playing through a strained lower back that nearly kept him out of Game 1, swatted a three-run homer in the third inning and added a solo shot in the eighth, joining Lenny Dykstra in the 1993 World Series as the only Phillies players to have a multi-homer game in the postseason.

And with the Phillies needing to win to avoid having to face Brewers ace CC Sabathia in a pressure-packed and decisive Game 5, the staples of their roster for nearly a decade came through, sending them to the best-of-seven series against the Los Angeles Dodgers that opens Thursday night at the Bank.

"There are some homegrown guys here that have made a big impact on this team," said Burrell, standing in the center of a champagne-soaked clubhouse. "But I don't think there's anybody who takes it harder when we don't do well when Jimmy and I."

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Time for me to hop a flight home. I'll post more this afternoon. For now, though, I want to hear from y'all. How do you think the Phillies will do against the Dodgers?