In the end, Dodgers 'just didn't have what it takes'

FROM PHILADELPHIA — Nowhere, fast.

So describes the journey of the 2009 Dodgers, which ended Wednesday in a recognizably battered heap in the darkest part of a familiar dead end.

Again, it was the Philadelphia Phillies dancing on the grass.

Again, it was the Dodgers staring from the dugout.

Again, it was three wins and three light years short of a World Series.

"We thought we were better this year, we thought we had what it takes," said Matt Kemp afterward with a strange softness in his voice. "But we just didn't have what it takes."

Out on the Citizens Bank Park field, the Phillies were bubbly wet and giddily swaggering after a 10-4 pounding of the Dodgers to give them a four-games-to-one victory in the National League Championship Series.

"The playoffs are a whole different animal," said Ryan Howard, the series MVP. "You've got to step your game up."

In the whispering Dodgers clubhouse, ashen owner Frank McCourt was clearly upset that his team did not.

"A horrible, horrible feeling," McCourt said. "It just rips a hole in your stomach."

In an inner hallway, a different sort of rip was perhaps being mended, uniformed Manager Joe Torre stopping Jonathan Broxton as the embattled reliever was leaving in street clothes.

Broxton stuck out his hand. Torre grabbed it and pulled Broxton close in a full, prolonged hug.

"A learning process," Torre whispered to him.

Given this lineup and payroll, two years of learning should have been enough.

Despite having the best record in the National League, the Dodgers must now consider this season a failure.

"I did feel this year we were better equipped to play them," claimed McCourt. "We are making progress, and we will get it done."

For the Dodgers to fulfill that promise, the first bit of education must occur in the front office, which needs to realize something that everyone from here to Nicaragua now understands.

They need an ace, or they will continue to be NLCS jokers.

The fact that they had to start castoff Vicente Padilla in Wednesday's critical game makes one sort of statement.

The fact that Padilla was a complete wreck, giving up six runs in three innings, just confirms that statement.

In this championship series, the Dodger starters were 0-3 with a 12.59 ERA, and even the best bullpen in baseball couldn't save that.