Sports

BLANTON, BURRELL LEAD PHILADELPHIA TO NLCS

MILWAUKEE – Steve Carlton, Curt Schilling . . . and Joe Blanton?

OK, maybe Blanton isn’t ready to be put alongside great pitchers in Phillies history, but the 27-year-old made like Carlton and Schilling yesterday, delivering a dazzling postseason pitching performance and pushing Philadelphia into the NLCS for the first time in 15 years.

Blanton gave up one run in six innings, allowing five hits while striking out seven and walking none in the Phillies’ 6-2 victory over the Brewers in Game 4 of the NLDS, giving them a 3-1 series victory. Blanton got an offensive lift from Pat Burrell, Jimmy Rollins and Jayson Werth, who all homered.

Burrell, who has not always been embraced by Phillies fans, swung the biggest bat, going 3-for-4 with two homers and four RBIs.

The Phillies open the NLCS at home Thurs day against Joe Torre’s Dodgers.

“To be in this situation,” Burrell said, “as long as I’ve been here with the organization and to see where we’ve come, to get to this point . . . it makes it all worthwhile.”

While the longest-tenured Phillie put the runs on the board, one of the newest Phillies shut Milwaukee down.

Phillies general manager Pat Gillick traded for Blanton on July 17, addressing Philadelphia’s biggest weakness, its starting rotation. Blanton went 4-0 with a 4.20 ERA in 13 starts after arriving from Oakland, but was unspectacular. Yesterday, he changed that in his first playoff start.

Blanton labored in the first inning, using 28 pitches against four batters. From there, he cruised. After giving up a first-inning single to Ryan Braun, he sat down 10 straight Brewers. He didn’t allow a Brewer to reach second base until Prince Fielder hit a solo home run in the seventh inning.

“That’s the best I’ve seen him pitch,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “Today he challenged the hitters. He went right at them.”

The crowd of 43,934 at Miller Park was revved up at the start of the game. Saturday’s Game 3 was the first postseason game in this city since 1982. The crowd roared when Jeff Suppan took the mound, but Rollins quieted them quickly with a home run to right to lead off the game.

“You can’t give enough credit for Jimmy for being the catalyst of the team,” Burrell said. “In our biggest game of the year, and basically our careers, to start off with a homer like that really set the tone.”

Suppan, who stifled the Mets in the 2006 NLCS while with St. Louis, was awful, lasting just three innings. The crushing blow came in the third when he intentionally walked Ryan Howard with a runner on second to get to Burrell. It was a questionable move by Milwaukee’s interim manager Dale Sveum because Howard hit .182 in this series and Burrell came into yesterday 9-for-21 with three homers off Suppan.

Burrell made the Brewers pay as he took Suppan’s 2-2 fastball and put it over the left-field fence. Werth followed with a solo shot and the Phillies took a 5-0 lead.

Burrell added a solo shot in the eighth inning to give the Phillies a cushion.

Now the Phillies face the red-hot Dodgers for a trip to their first World Series since 1993.

“I like our chances,” Manuel said. “I think we can beat anybody in the National League.”

brian.costello@nypost.com