LOS ANGELES — Nothing is emptier than the we-had-a-good-season speech at times like this. Fortunately you didn't hear it from many of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

That was remarkable because they had two hours to compose it.

Rafael Furcal's dropsies in the fifth inning put the Phillies up by five runs, not that Cole Hamels needed them, and the whole thing sort of slogged to its 5-1 conclusion that eliminated the Dodgers from the National League Championship Series in five games.

As it turned out, Furcal had awakened Wednesday with a neck problem that restricted his throwing. But the Dodgers still had Angel Berroa, the shortstop that played throughout their division-winning September. Somehow, to use Dave Anderson's long-ago line in the Brooklyn Eagle, they decided to die with their boots.

More Phillies were ready for this moment than Dodgers.

Chad Billingsley's 16 regular-season victories translated into two NLCS losses. He got only seven outs in Game 2 and eight outs in Game 5, he was accused of bad teammate-hood by not throwing at Phillies after the Phillies had thrown at the Dodgers, and he stood there Wednesday night with sad eyes and a stiff lip.

"I just tried to be too precise with my pitches tonight and it cost me," Billingsley said.

More precisely, Billingsley didn't use his fastball enough.

He opened the game by getting two strikes on Jimmy Rollins, the 2007 MVP and the proponent of the RBI (Reviving Baseball In Inner-cities) program who needed to start a HIT program, since he was 2 for 17 in the series.

Rollins fouled off a changeup and a curveball and Billingsley started missing. The eighth pitch was high and juicy, and Rollins whacked it over the right-field wall.

"He fouled off some tough pitches, went down and got them," Billingsley said."

"I think he got frustrated when Rollins kept hanging in there," Manager Joe Torre said, "and it was almost like he wanted to throw something that he could hit. And he (Rollins) did."

That was only one run, but Cole Hamels made it look like a couple of touchdowns. He had the same trouble with Manny Ramirez that everyone else has, but he held the 1-2-4 hitters (Furcal, Andre Ethier, Russell Martin) hitless.

Then, in the third, Rollins walked and stole second when Blake DeWitt couldn't get the tag down.

Billingsley threw a wicked curve ball that Chase Utley missed to take the count to 3-2. Then Billingsley missed badly with a curve ball down. Ryan Howard smacked a curve for an RBI single, and Pat Burrell's hit made it 3-0.

"You sure don't want to put it down the middle of the plate against a team like that," Billingsley said, "but they were patient."

"I thought we were a little tense," Torre said, "and that's not the approach you should have against Cole Hamels."

Hamels is 3-0 in the playoffs with a 0.95 ERA, and 22 strikeouts in 22 innings.

Ramirez homered off Hamels and hit .533 for the series. For the playoffs he hit .520 and drove in 10 runs in eight games, which means he had 63 RBIs in 61 Dodgers games.

Bored fans in left-field began chanting "Stay, Manny, Stay" in the eighth inning. He is a free agent under the advisement of Scott Boras.

"We'll see," he said. "It was the same thing in Cleveland. The fans wanted me to stay and I had a good time there, but we'll have to see what happens."

Ramirez left Cleveland for Boston after the 2000 season.

Boston people unanimously warn the Dodgers against marrying Ramirez. Give him the money, they say, and you will no longer see the passionate 90-foot sprints to first, the friendly locker room byplay with the media, the willingness to play with small hurts. Since Ramirez talked himself out of Boston, he realized he had some image rehab when he came here.

"I think I showed I'm a five-tool player," he said, a little fancifully. "I can hit, play left field, hit with power, steal some bases."

The Dodgers would be daft not to accommodate him. The non-Manny Dodgers hit .233 in this series and he had seven of their 19 RBI.

Torre said afterward that 2008 was the year "I learned managing can be fun again." It was somewhat more fun after July 31.

There is certainly no financial reason not to pursue Ramirez. They could gather $39.2 million just by letting go of Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra, Brad Penny and Jeff Kent, and after the '09 season they escape $27 million of obligations to Jason Schmidt and Andruw Jones.

By then Ivan DeJesus Jr. should be ready for shortstop, and James McDonald, who gave up no runs in two NLCS appearances, will be in the rotation.

The best thing about freshmen? They become sophomores. The best thing about the Dodgers, provided they paid attention? They become Phillies.