LOS ANGELES — In the midst of the Los Angeles Dodgers' wild champagne celebration, a dripping Manny Ramirez had a message for future postseason opponents.
"We did it once," the dreadlocked slugger screamed. "Believe me, we can do it again."
The way they dominated the long-suffering Chicago Cubs in their NL division series, the Dodgers certainly appear to have what it takes to beat anyone, starting with the Philadelphia Phillies in the NL championship series.
"We had nothing to lose," Ramirez said after Los Angeles completed its three-game sweep of the Cubs with a 3-1 victory Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. "We got in and we were underdogs, now we're going to the second round.
"It doesn't matter if you're the underdog or the favored team. But we don't want to peak too soon. The key is to go to the big dance."
The Dodgers and Phillies open the best-of-seven NLCS on Thursday in Philadelphia, with the winner going to the World Series.
"We had a lot of people doubting us all year," first-year Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "We weren't resentful about it. It was just the fact we haven't really played well enough to get anybody's attention."
That was certainly the case following a 9-3 loss Aug. 29 at Arizona, the Dodgers' eighth straight setback. That left them with a 65-70 record and 4 1/2 games behind the NL West-leading Diamondbacks.
A complete turnaround began the following two days, when the Dodgers beat Arizona aces Dan Haren and Brandon Webb to trigger an eight-game winning streak, putting them atop their division for good.
"We learned a lot about ourselves during that eight-game losing streak and we came together," third baseman Casey Blake said. "I think we found out what we were made of."
They would eventually win 19 of their final 27 games to give them momentum entering the postseason, and then came a surprising sweep of the favored Cubs.
"We struggled to find out who we were for a long period of time," Torre said. "If it wasn't for pitching, it would have been tough to keep guys' interest, trust me, because we weren't putting many numbers up."
That changed in late July, when the Dodgers acquired free-agents-to-be Blake from Cleveland and Ramirez from Boston. But everything didn't fall into place until the end of August.
Ramirez changed the entire dynamic of the Dodgers, on and off the field. He batted .396 with 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 regular-season games with Los Angeles and loosened up the clubhouse as well.
Ramirez was 5-for-10 with two homers, three RBIs and scored five runs against the Cubs, who walked him intentionally twice in Game 3.
The Cubs, in search of their first World Series triumph since 1908, won an NL-leading 97 games to the Dodgers' 84. But Los Angeles was far superior in all aspects in their playoff series, starting with a 20-6 advantage in runs scored.
"We made it easy, didn't we?"' Jeff Kent said. "When you have a long layoff and you get yourself into the playoffs, anything can happen. We ended up playing some teams with losing records at the end of September and we gained confidence from all that."
The 40-year-old Kent, a likely future Hall of Famer who has hit more homers than any second baseman in baseball history, is mostly watching from the bench these days, as is 35-year-old Nomar Garciaparra, a six-time All-Star and two-time AL batting champion.
Kent underwent arthroscopic knee surgery Sept. 2, and Garciaparra has battled injuries all year.
But both celebrated with great joy Saturday night.
The Dodgers' three wins over the Cubs boosted Torre's postseason total to 79 — the most in baseball history. His first 76 came in the last 12 years as skipper of the New York Yankees, including 16 in four World Series triumphs.
Torre has said repeatedly that his last few years with the Yankees weren't much fun. He's also made it clear that it's been a different story in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers went 4-4 against the Phillies this season, playing all eight games in a span of 15 days in August. Los Angeles swept a four-game series at Dodger Stadium from Aug. 11-14, outscoring the Phillies 22-16. Then, the Phillies swept a four-game series at Citizens Bank Park from Aug. 22-25, outscoring the Dodgers 27-5.
Starting pitchers Derek Lowe, Chad Billingsley and Hiroki Kuroda, who shut down the powerful Cubs, will be well-rested to face the Phillies.
Although nothing like the Cubs, the Dodgers and Phillies have had their own droughts. In beating the Cubs, the Dodgers won their first postseason series since winning the 1988 World Series. In getting past Milwaukee, the Phillies advanced for the first time since reaching the 1993 World Series before losing to Toronto.
After taking Sunday off, the Dodgers planned a workout for Monday.
"I don't want to do anything (Sunday)," Torre said with a smile. "My feelings about a short series is you never want to lose that edge you have. But I'm glad we have a few days off."