Phillies the toast of town

The Philadelphia Phillies flipped that script a bit Monday night, waiting until after they defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series to raise their cups. Instead of Jack Daniels, it was Don Julio tequila.

“One more,’’ the players chanted after a 5-4 victory put them a game away from returning to the World Series to defend their championship. “One more.’’

Jimmy Rollins was responsible for the impromptu gathering in a private room of the clubhouse, his two-out, two-run double off Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton having won the game. But he ducked questions about the postgame celebration.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,’’ Rollins said with a grin.

The Phillies, who lead the series, three games to one, can clinch the pennant tonight when they face the Dodgers at Citizens Bank Park.

Cole Hamels, who beat the Dodgers in the deciding fifth game of the NLCS last season, will start against Vicente Padilla.

Pedro Martinez, the only man in the room for both toasts, said the Phillies bear more than a passing resemblance to the 2004 Red Sox in how they approach the game.

“I’ll put them together,’’ Martinez said. “I’m not saying it’s exactly. This team is a little bit quieter than ’04 was. That team had a whole bunch of guys who were really loud, a lot of noise in that clubhouse. This team is good, very good.

“The players here are special. Even the guy who goes out for defense and catches one fly ball, he’s special. But this team has a lot of superstars. What Jimmy did [Monday] is what this team expects.’’

Rollins had been 8 for 37 in this postseason with one RBI before delivering the double. But there was confidence the Phillies would figure out a way to win.

“We believe in ourselves,’’ said Rollins. “We believe in our ability. We know that there’s 27 outs. You’re going to get out, they’re going to catch the ball, but you’re not going to get yourself out. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. You have to play 27 outs.’’

Manager Charlie Manuel made that point harshly to Rollins in 2008 when he benched him for not running out a popup that dropped in during a June game against the Reds. Instead of being on second base, Rollins jogged into first.

“I think it’s our philosophy of how we want to play,’’ said Manuel. “We want to play every day for that day. When we come to the ballpark on that day, we expect to win that game. That’s how we play, and that’s what we talk about. We started that about three years ago. We kind of changed our team around and we put new guys in.

“You’ve got to learn to be totally relaxed and be able to play. And if you’re uptight and things like that, more than likely we’re going to lose. That was the kind of problems that we had.

“We put some guys in who were a little bit quicker, not a whole lot, and played a little bit better defense and could do a little bit more things, that’s all. And all of a sudden with the attitude they have, we changed the course.’’

Hamels, 25, was one of those players. He is 5-2 with a 3.12 ERA in eight postseason starts. The lefthander has not pitched well in the playoffs this season, giving up eight runs over 10 1/3 innings (6.97 ERA). But watching Rollins Monday provided ample inspiration.

“It was something where we kept fighting. We know we have that sort of resiliency, and we’re just more loose,’’ Hamels said. “I think when you’re able to have the confidence in each other and not really put extra added pressure, you’re able to go out there and compete the right way.’’

Doug Mientkiewicz, who helped the Red Sox win the championship in 2004 and sipped from that famed cup of Jack Daniels, is traveling with the Dodgers as a nonroster player and has watched the Phillies closely.

“They’re a tough out, like we were in Boston,’’ he said. “If we can get the series back to Los Angeles, anything can happen. But that team has something good going on in October the last two years. If you get a bunch of guys believing in something, you see what can happen.’’

Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com.