St. Louis, MO (AP) - The Phillies get clutch hitting late from Ross Gload and Ryan Howard, and Brad Lidge shuts the door in a big way in the 9th to set off another victory celebration on the road, as the Fightins make it to their third World Series in four seasons.

Time to break out the bubbly once again!

"Ahh yes, this is so much fun!   I think I want to do it again!" proclaimed Phils shortstop Jimmy Rollins.

"Let the good times flow, baby!" yelled slugger Ryan Howard, as he poured champaign all over starting pitcher Roy Halladay.

Another Fall, another celebration is underway in the Phillies locker room.  This is really becoming a habit this time of year, and it's one the Phillies and their fans don't mind one bit.

Good defense early helped snuff out a scoring chance for the Cardinals.

Philadelphia wrapped up another pennant by way of tonight's 4-2 victory over St. Louis.  The win clinched the series for the Fightins, four games to one.  And, this National League Championship Series was about as dominant as the win count indicates.

The Phillies out-hit, out-pitched, out-fielded and, most importantly, out-lasted the Cardinals.  In a playoff series that was expected to be a knock-down, drag out fight, the Phillies hit an eye-popping .321.  That's nearly 100 points higher than their opponent.  Philly also doubled up St. Louis in runs scored and home runs.  As if that wasn't dominating enough for you, Philadelphia (3.00) had more than half the ERA of St. Louis (6.27).

"We definitely played some good baseball," said Manager Charlie Manuel.  "I know that sounds ridiculously obvious, but think about it.  We hit better.  We pitched better.  We fielded better.  No disrespect, but we were the better team in this particular series.  And, it showed in the numbers, and the wins."

After taking a 3-0 lead in the series, Philadelphia dropped game four.  And, game five was far from a certainty for Philadelphia.  In fact, it got to be a bit of nail biting time late in the game.

Polanco's bloop single got the offense going in the second inning.

The Phillies drew first blood in the second inning.  A pair of walks, with two outs sandwiched in between, set up runners at first and second with two out and Placido Polanco coming to the plate.  He blooped a single into right field that brought home Domonic Brown with the first run of the game.  Chase Utley followed suit with his own RBI single, sending Rollins to the plate for a 2-0 lead early on.

But, the Cardinals refused to lay down.  They came storming back in the bottom half.  Matt Holliday got it started with a base hit, then eventually stole second base with one out.  Lance Berkman hit a grounder towards the hole on the left side of the infield, and Polanco made a nice play on the ball.  But, he airmailed the throw, allowing Holliday to score and Berkman advanced to second.

Another ground out moved Berkman to third, and he scored on a Bryan Anderson single to left to tie the game at two.

"That was sloppy on my part," admitted Polanco.  "They probably shouldn't have scored at all that inning.  But, Doc got us out of it with generally minimal damage.  I'm just glad it didn't cost us the game."

It's a game of inches. Here, Howard's bid to score the go-ahead run is stopped cold by a tag just in time.

From there, Roy Halladay and Chirs Carpenter would settle in for a pitcher's duel.  The two were teammates years ago in Toronto, trying to help each other as they battled through American League hitters.  Now, they squared off against each other for the first time.  Halladay came up with the slight edge, lasting 7 innings and giving up just the two runs.  Carpenter eventually got chased after the fifth inning, as the patient Phillies hitters worked his pitch count higher.

"We're really close friends, but we were definitely competing out there," said Halladay.  "It was fun to go up against him in such an atmosphere like this.  We both just gave it everything we had.  Had the results been different, I'm sure I'd have been happy for him, as I'm certain he's happy for me right now."

The teams remained deadlocked at two, though each side had their chances to score some runs.  The Phils had runners in scoring position in the fourth and fifth innings, and St. Louis also had a chance to push a run across in the fifth.  But, neither team could quite come up with a clutch hit.

Take a "gload" off: Ross Gload came through in the clutch with the go-ahead RBI in the 8th.

Philadelphia appeared to be on the verge of taking the lead in the seventh.  Ryan Howard picked up a two out single.  Then, Raul Ibanez smashed a double to right field.  Howard was sent home, but the relay throw from Cards second baseman Brian Roberts was perfect, and Howard was gunned down at the plate by inches to end the inning.

"That was a bit frustrating," admitted Howard in the post game press conference.  "We were so close to taking the lead a couple times, and if I was just a little faster, we would've gone ahead there."

However, Philadelphia finally broke through with a clutch hit in the 8th.  Carlos Ruiz once again started a rally with two outs by hitting a double.  Pinch hitter Ross Gload came in and proceeded to smack his own double down the left field line to give the Phils a 3-2 lead.

"More than anything, I wanted to put the ball in play, give it a chance to fall somewhere.  Thankfully, it did," said Gload.

In the ninth, Ryan Howard added a little bit of insurance by blasting his third homer of the series, an absolute bomb to straight away center field that traveled 437 feet.  The Phils scored all four of their runs with two outs.

Just for good measure, Howard hits a 437 foot insurance home run in the 9th.

That set the stage for the ninth, where closer Brad Lidge came in and was lights out, retiring the side in order to preserve the victory and clinch the series for Philadelphia.  It was just his second save of the postseason, but interestingly enough, the other one also clinched the NLDS against San Diego.

Now, the Phillies will have a chance to get a measure of revenge on their way to a World Series championship.  Philadelphia will take on the Yankees, who beat the Twins in a thrilling seven game ALCS.  New York beat the Phils in 2009 to win their 27th world championship.

Cliff Lee was on that Phillies team.  "I'm looking forward to another opportunity to go after these guys in the series.  It didn't work out well for us the last time, but we're a better team now, and I like our chances."

So do a lot of Phillies fans.  For now, they'll just enjoy the moment as the best team in the National League.