PHILADELPHIA -- Pat Burrell, Chase Utley and the Philadelphia Phillies had more than enough power to offset Manny Ramirez in the NL championship series opener.

Utley and Burrell homered off tiring Derek Lowe in the sixth inning to back a strong performance by Cole Hamels, and the Phillies were a winner in their return to the NLCS, beating the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 last night.

"It feels great but you can't get too caught up in this," Burrell said. "We've got a lot of work to do."

Ramirez put the Dodgers ahead with a long RBI double in the first, just missing a two-run homer. But the Phillies' big bats answered in the sixth, when Burrell hit a go-ahead solo homer after Utley's two-run shot tied it.

Game 2 is today in Philadelphia, with Phillies right-hander Brett Myers facing Dodgers righty Chad Billingsley.

A lower back injury nearly sidelined Burrell in the first round against Milwaukee, and he almost got benched after going 0-for-8 in the first three games. But manager Charlie Manuel kept Burrell in the lineup, and Burrell responded with two homers and four RBI in the clinching win over the Brewers.

Hamels settled down after the first and wound up allowing two runs and six hits, striking out eight.

"I think the guy just geared it up a notch," Burrell said.

Ryan Madson pitched a scoreless eighth, and Brad Lidge finished with a perfect ninth for his third save of the postseason. Lidge is 44 for 44 in save chances this year.

Lowe cruised through the first five innings, allowing just four singles. But the right-hander with the hard sinker couldn't make it out of the sixth.

The speedy Shane Victorino reached second base leading off on shortstop Rafael Furcal's throwing error. Utley ripped the next pitch into the seats in right-center for his first postseason homer in 29 at-bats, tying it at 2.

One out later, Burrell lined a 3-1 pitch into the left-field stands for a 3-2 lead, sending the sellout crowd into frenzy.

"Utley is a pretty good hitter," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "I don't think the error had anything to do with what happened after that."

Los Angeles took a 1-0 lead in the first off Hamels, who tossed eight shutout innings against Milwaukee in Game 1 of the division series.

Andre Ethier hit a one-out double. With first base open, manager Charlie Manuel chose to let Hamels pitch to Ramirez. The slugger made them pay, hitting an RBI double high off the 19-foot wall just left of straightaway center.

Blake DeWitt's sacrifice fly in the fourth made it 2-0. Matt Kemp led off the inning with a looping ground-rule double down the right-field line. Kemp advanced to third on Casey Blake's grounder to shortstop and scored on DeWitt's fly to center.

Lowe's sinker was so sharp early on that he even got Jayson Werth to ground into his third double-play in 786 plate appearances since joining the Phillies last year.

Lowe was 6-1 with a 1.27 ERA in his last 10 regular-season starts, including an 0.59 ERA in September. He beat Chicago in the opener of the division series as the Dodgers swept the heavily favored Cubs to reach the NLCS for the first time since winning the World Series in 1988.

Both teams entered the series streaking. The Dodgers finished 19-8 to capture the NL West crown and won three in a row over the Cubs. The Phillies went 13-3 down the stretch to win their second straight NL East title and needed four games to eliminate wild card Milwaukee.