Phillies clinch series with 2-0 victory over Reds

For the third time in three seasons, the Philadelphia Phillies will be playing for a National League pennant.

They made sure of that Sunday, riding a complete-game shutout from left-hander Cole Hamels to a 2-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds to complete an impressive three-game sweep of the NL division series.

The Phillies, winners of the last two league championships, will go for a third straight beginning Saturday in Philadelphia, where they will face the winner of the San Francisco-Atlanta division series.

The Giants lead that best-of-five series 2-1.

Ultimately it may not matter who wins that matchup, though. Not the way the Phillies are playing.

Philadelphia has won eight of 10 games in the league championship series since 2008 -- and this year’s team is far better than either of the last two.

It’s certainly hotter, having lost just four times in its last 22 games.

And on Sunday Hamels served notice that the Phillies rotation is a lot deeper than just Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. Pitching before a crowd of 44,599, the largest in the eight-year history of Great American Ball Park, the Phillies best starter not named Roy blanked the Reds on five hits, turning in the second complete game for Philadelphia in the short series.

Four times in the last four years Hamels has started a game in which the Phillies needed a win to end a series.

They’ve won each time.

And though Hamels didn’t really need the help, the Reds gave him a quick one-run cushion in the first inning when shortstop Orlando Cabrera, a late addition to the lineup after being slowed by a strained muscle in his ribcage, threw wildly on Jayson Werth’s two-out grounder, allowing Placido Polanco to score.

A Reds fan in the front row of the right-center-field bleachers appeared to give Philadelphia its second run when he caught Chase Utley’s two-out solo home run in the fifth, preventing leaping Cincinnati centerfielder Drew Stubbs from making a play on the ball.

But then mistakes, as many as anything else, were emblematic of the Reds’ brief postseason visit. Blinded, perhaps, by the footlights on baseball’s postseason stage -- 19 of Cincinnati’s 25 players have never been in the playoffs before -- the Reds were just a shadow of the team that won the Central Division title going away.

The league’s best offensive team during the regular season, the Reds hit .124 in the playoffs. The league’s best-fielding team during the summer, Cincinnati made seven errors, leading to six unearned runs, in the fall. Add it up and Cincinnati finished their first postseason series in 15 years with just four more hits -- 11 -- than errors.

But while they came away from the playoffs winless, the Reds didn’t leave empty-handed.

“This is big experience. Especially for my young players,” Manager Dusty Baker said. “The thing that we wanted to do when we came here was build this thing where you could have a good chance to be in this position for a number of years, especially consecutive years..

“And you talk to people around baseball and they say we’re on the right course and on the right path to have a chance to do that.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com