The bat of Pat Burrell finally came alive Sunday to move the Philadelphia Phillies into the National League Conference Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, who swept the Chicago Cubs in three games. The Phillies beat the Milwaukee Brewers three games to one. After going hittless in the previous three games of the series, Burrell connected for two separate homeruns in Sunday’s series clincher, the first coming in the top of the third. After Shane Victorino doubled to left and Ryan Howard was inentionally walked, Burrell came to the plate and smoked one into the left field seats, his second hit of the game. That put the Phillies up 4-0, and that was more than enough for starter Joe Blanton.

In his first ever playoff start, Blanton went six strong innings, giving up just one run on five hits with seven strikeouts. Blanton did not give up a run until the seventh inning on a lead off homerun to Prince Fielder, his first hit of the series. Reliever Ryan Madson came in to pitch the seventh and the eighth and closer Brad Lidge closed out the ninth.

“He gave me some lip yesterday about not getting Howard over,” said Burrell, referring to Jimmy Rollins, who led off the game with a homerun. “He was on second with nobody out, and he was right. I didn’t get him over. So I said, ‘Why don’t you do something?’ Sure enough, he did. And then it was on me.”

After months of criticism over his lack of leadership ability, it appears Rollins has stepped up to the plate at just the right time. If the Phillies hope to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in their first NLCS since 1993 and make it to the World Series, they are going to need leadership from guys like Rollins.

“We don’t feel like we should be looking at anything less than a World Series,” Rollins said. “And that’s a World Series win. It’s a lot of work. It’s not going to be easy, but we weren’t geared just to get to the playoffs. We’re geared to win. We haven’t broken through anything yet. We’ve just stepped over one hurdle.”

The series kicks off Thursday in Philadelphia.