Dodgers don't want deja vu in matchup

LOS ANGELES - This is a rematch of the 2008 National League Championship Series, and the Dodgers no more want to rehash it than relive it.

Manager Joe Torre understands that the highlights - or lowlights, from his point of view - will be replayed, but he takes no stand on whether his players need to avert their eyes.

"I don't try to tell them what to do or not to do," Torre said. "The only thing - good or bad - is you can't do anything about them anymore. I don't want to live in the past. When you're out there enough, you make mistakes. You're watching this time of year, you're maybe seeing it. You move on.

"The nature of the game we play, it's imperfect. I don't want them to think negative because I think you can will yourself to do things."

Some of the lasting images of the Phillies' league championship series are of Cole Hamels on the mound and the heroics of Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs. The Dodgers must contend with the meltdowns of young starting pitcher Chad Billingsley in two starts and veteran shortstop Rafael Furcal's three-error inning in Game 5.

"When you give things away, give the opposition an extra out, you can't afford to do that," Torre said. "Certainly, we get reminded. When it's in postseason play, we see it once or twice."

If there are reasons this season could be different, Torre and general manager Ned Colletti start with the fact that the Dodgers are more experienced than last season, and their no-ace rotation and bullpen are working for them.

The Phillies' bullpen is a little more complicated.

The Dodgers' rotation for the series is still a guessing game, although they have two lefthanders - former Phillie Randy Wolf and 21-year-old standout Clayton Kershaw - to start against the Phillies' lefthanded bats after starting only righties last season.

Torre also said Hiroki Kuroda - who got the Dodgers' only championship series win last season - could rejoin the rotation after missing the division series against St. Louis because of a sore neck. Colletti said he expected to see former Phillie Vicente Padilla as well.

Both Torre and Colletti talk mostly about experience, though, and that brings up outfielders Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp, emerging youngsters last season who became full-blown stars this season.

Ethier, 27, led the Dodgers with 31 home runs and 106 RBIs and danced through a season of walk-off hits, including four walk-off homers, which tied a major-league record.

Kemp became the eighth player in Dodgers history to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in a season. Only 25, he had a 100-RBI season.

"I think, just the experience" in the NLCS, Torre said. "I think we took certain approaches and confidence from the experience we got, and we seem a little better suited. Obviously, the result we need to be different, but for me, whatever the result is, I think the playing of the game will be better. I think that's where I'll judge whether we learned anything."

Furcal, who came back late last season after missing most of the year because of a back injury, is playing near his best again now.

Manny Ramirez caused a storm with his suspension for violating baseball's drug policy and struggled at times, but it's the postseason now, and he knows it.

Are there reasons this series could be different? This time, the Dodgers are playing the World Series champions, but they are the team with the best record in the National League, and, unlike last season, they are the team with home-field advantage.

Torre wants to win another World Series, and he has won four.

"You never get tired of this," he said. "I've found that once you win it, you need to do it again."

Just ask the Phillies.