WORLD SERIES GAME RESULTS

10/23/08 3:07 AM ET

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Phillies begin Series quest with victory
Backed by Utley's blast, Hamels tosses seven strong innings

By Ken Mandel / MLB.com

ST. PETERSBURG -- Enduring deafening cowbell sounds clanging off Tropicana Field's walls Wednesday night, the Phillies still managed to hear echoes of 1980.

Bringing their own rhythm to the 2008 World Series, notably the beating of the ball off Chase Utley's lumber and the hollow slicing of air waving at Cole Hamels' changeup, the Phillies squeaked out a 3-2 win over the Rays in Game 1 of the Fall Classic.

So began a quest for Philadelphia that can end successfully with just three more wins. The Phillies recorded their 100th win of 2008 and need what they hope will be a truly grand total 103 to claim their first World Series title since '80.

When the Series continues with Thursday's Game 2 at Tropicana Field, history is on the Phils' side, as 10 of the past 11 Game 1 victors have gone on to take the World Series.

"We can downplay that it's only Game 1, but really, it's a pretty important game," said closer Brad Lidge, who saved his 47th straight game this season with a perfect ninth inning. "Coming in here, getting a win here, is huge. When your ace is on the mound, you need to win."

On that subject, this Game 1 showed how much the starter can decide the outcome. Hamels, the National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player, staked his claim for similar World Series honors, allowing two runs in a 102-pitch, seven-inning effort.

Hamels became just the fourth pitcher to win three Game 1s in the same postseason since the Wild Card era began in 1995, joining John Smoltz (1996), David Wells (1998) and Josh Beckett (2007).

"Yeah, Cole is pretty good, man," manager Charlie Manuel said. "I'm glad he pitches for us. He's been very consistent all year long. How he pitched tonight, that's kind of like a regular game for him. He can be better. He can be bit sharper, but tonight he was very good."

Hamels, now 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA in the 2008 postseason, acted no different for the latest biggest start of his career. Where Brett Myers might zone out with heavy metal music and not talk to anyone, or Jamie Moyer might make idle chat before researching his notes on the opposing team, Hamels was jovial, laughing and joking with teammates.

"He looked like it was just another game," reliever Scott Eyre said. "He was smiling and walking around the locker room. He doesn't do anything to let you know that he's starting that day. He was talking to everybody. Cole never changes. That's a big strength for him."

So is his changeup, and he floated that in whenever needed, helping him record five strikeouts. When things got tight, Hamels got a double play, first and foremost by B.J. Upton with the bases loaded in the third inning.

Playing with the tenacious toughness that defined them all season, the Phillies charged early. Showing no rust from a one-week layoff, Utley delivered his mates to a first-inning lead with a tone-setting, two-run homer off Scott Kazmir that muffled some cowbells.

"I can't think of a better way to quiet them down," Manuel said. "That's how you do it."

Coming back from an 0-2 count, Utley worked the count even before sending a pitch into the right-field seats. It scored Jayson Werth, who had earned a one-out walk. Earlier in the at-bat, Utley laid down a bunt that went foul.

"I guess it turned out pretty well," Utley said. "The third baseman was playing shortstop, I figured with a guy on first and one out, I'd try to create something at that point.

Manuel thought the week off may have helped Utley, who disregards his body during a season and could have used the healing time.

"It definitely could have," Manuel said. "As hard as Utley plays mentally and physically all during the season, he gets worn down. Any time off he gets helps him."

The Rays appeared close to stealing the momentum from the 2-0 cushion when Akinori Iwamura beat out an infield single to Ryan Howard in the bottom of the first. Hamels broke late covering first, and Iwamura beat Howard to the base. But the poised young lefty smothered any spark, getting Upton to rap into a double play and Carlos Pena to ground out, ending the inning.

"He didn't get over to first, but it didn't matter," Eyre said. "He got a double play and an out. It's like he said, 'Oh well. OK.' It's neat to watch from a 24-year-old kid."

Two innings later, Hamels induced another double-play grounder from Upton, this time with the bases loaded to end a threat.

"That's huge," Hamels said. "They're devastating. They can hit the long ball, and that was something I was aware of, especially with B.J. He's the type of guy that can change a game in an instant. Being able to get the double play was the kind of momentum swing in our favor, because if they can load the bases with less than two outs and not score, then you definitely have the upper hand."

The Rays scored in the fourth on a home run by Carl Crawford and in the fifth on an RBI double by Iwamura that scored Jason Bartlett, but that was it.

Hamels left after seven innings, and Ryan Madson and Lidge sewed up the save with a perfect final two frames, giving the Phillies a World Series Game 1 victory for the first time since 1980. They haven't lost a game this season when leading in the ninth inning.

It wasn't all pretty in Game 1, however. The Phillies went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position, making Kazmir work but scoring just enough runs to win.

The Phillies have reached this point by winning 20 of 25 games, including a 7-2 record in eliminating the Brewers and Dodgers. Wednesday's win made it 21 of 26.

In every sense, this was a huge night for the Phillies organization. Every full-time front-office employee was offered the chance to attend Games 1 and 2 with a guest, and 175 employees plus about 150 guests accepted the offer. Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt was there, dressed in a suit and wearing his 1980 World Series championship ring.

The Rays are seeking to complete a unique cycle in which the Phillies have lost a World Series to every American League East team -- the Red Sox in 1915, Yankees in 1950, Orioles in 1983 and Blue Jays in 1993. Their lone championship came against the Royals, who were in their 11th year of existence. The Rays are in their 11th season.

To Manuel and the Phillies, all the matters right now is the next game, and going in with a 1-0 lead in the World Series is the best way to start.

"Every one of them is important," Manuel said. "We won tonight, and we've got the same mind-set. We come back tomorrow and work on winning tomorrow's game. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves."

Hamels, Utley and Lidge helped put them ahead, allowing the Phillies to take a crucial first step in a place where the Rays rarely lose.

"We like being the underdogs," Shane Victorino said. "It seems like we play our best when our backs are against the wall. Coming into a place like this -- Tampa is so good at home -- being able to take Game 1 is big. But Boston took Game 1, too [in the ALCS]. It's still a long series. We're far from done. We'll show up tomorrow and try and get Game 2."

Ken Mandel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

3 more wins for a Philly WS title

10/26/08 2:56 AM ET

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Phils grab 2-1 lead with walk-off thriller
Ruiz's dribbler plates winning run in ninth inning of Game 3

By Ken Mandel / MLB.com

PHILADELPHIA -- When the rain stopped and the night sky cleared, the Phillies produced a World Series rainbow.

Now, the pot of gold sits two wins away, after the Phillies' 5-4 walk-off win over the Rays in Game 3 early Sunday morning secured a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Fall Classic.

They won it with a bases-loaded dribbler down the third-base line in the ninth inning to finish off the first World Series game in Philadelphia since 1993, a thriller that began 91 minutes late following a rain delay.

"It came down to the last pitch," first baseman Ryan Howard said. "This is the kind of World Series you dream of being in. It's a little nerve-racking, but to come out with a victory like that, it's great."

Riding homers from Carlos Ruiz, Chase Utley and Howard and the still effective left arm of Jamie Moyer -- a man one month shy of his 46th birthday -- the Phillies still needed late-game flair from Ruiz to take the pivotal Game 3 at Citizens Bank Park.

After the Rays tied the score in the top of the eighth, Eric Bruntlett was hit with a pitch. With Shane Victorino attempting to sacrifice, Grant Balfour unleashed a wild pitch and catcher Dioner Navarro compounded the problem by throwing the ball into center field, sending Bruntlett to third.

The Rays intentionally walked Victorino and pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs to set up a force at the plate. Despite five infielders, Ruiz dribbled a ball to third baseman Evan Longoria, who fielded it barehanded and threw wildly past Navarro, allowing Bruntlett to score.

"Bases are loaded, so obviously anything on the ground, I'm going," Bruntlett said. "As soon as it was hit, I knew I had a chance to score. ... We had a lot of good fortune that inning."

Philadelphia's last postseason walk-off win came in Game 1 of the 1993 National League Championship Series.

The city's first World Series game in 15 years began the same way as Game 3 in 1993, with a rain delay. This one kept 45,900 fans soggy until the 10:06 p.m. ET first pitch, the latest start to a World Series game in history.

The towel-waving faithful on this night that turned into morning didn't mind the delay, given the result. They cheered when the grounds crew peeled back the tarp at 9:18 and roared at 10:04, when the Phillies took the field.

Two minutes later, Moyer, the 45-year-old kid who once skipped school to attend the parade for the 1980 World Series championship team threw the first Fall Classic pitch of his 22-year career -- an 81-mph fastball for a called strike.

Moyer would throw plenty more, and kept an aggressive Rays team thoroughly off-balance. The second-oldest pitcher to start a World Series game, Moyer allowed three runs on five hits in 6 1/3 innings.

Moyer doesn't hesitate to rank this night in his long career.

"It's the top," he said.

And it was from before he even threw that first pitch.

"I think it was very uplifting to walk across the field, even through the puddles, and hear the excitement of the fans," Moyer said. "I try not to get caught up in it, but I do hear it. And I could tell when some of my teammates came out to get loose and things like that. I don't really pay attention to it but you can hear things. Not only that, when they announced the lineups to start the game, the first pitch of the game, the first couple innings, you really felt like the stadium was on end. It was really electric in our ballpark tonight. And I think that's very big for us."

The Phillies began their first home World Series game since Oct. 21, 1993, with a Jimmy Rollins single up the middle, snapping his 0-for-10 Fall Classic performance. Jayson Werth followed with a walk, then a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third, and Rollins scored the first run on Utley's groundout.

Tampa Bay evened it in the second, when Carl Crawford deposited a bloop double to left, stole third and scored on Gabe Gross' sacrifice fly. Ruiz gave the lead back to the Phils with a two-out solo homer in the second.

No one scored again until Utley and Howard smacked the franchise's first back-to-back World Series homers, the 14th time it's happened in World Series history. The duo turned the trick in the sixth inning.

The Rays didn't go away, beginning with Crawford's infield single in the seventh. He nubbed a ball toward Moyer, who lunged and shoveled the ball from his glove to Howard's bare left hand. Though television replays showed Crawford was out, first-base umpire Tom Hallion called him safe.

"You know what, I was definitely impressed," Howard said. "The way that Jamie got off the mound, the ball just kind of kept going. Because when I saw Carl bunt it, it looked like it was going to die kind of early, and all of a sudden, it kept rolling and rolling and rolling, and Jamie made [an extraordinary] effort to get over there and get the flip.

"I thought we had him. The only way I thought we can get him is by me trying to barehand it. I thought we had him at first base, but I guess the umpire thought otherwise."

A Dioner Navarro double ended Moyer's night, and the Rays plated both runners on RBI groundouts. They tied the game in the eighth, when B.J. Upton singled off Ryan Madson, stole second and third and scored when Ruiz's throw to third bounced away from Pedro Feliz.

But with Ruiz's heroics, the Phillies took Game 3 and come back in less than 24 hours with the hope of taking full control of the Series.

"This is why you have home-field advantage," Howard said. "And you have to take advantage of it while you have it. So to come out here and win the first game here in Philly, you definitely want to come out and try to set the tone and put you in a good position to try to come out tomorrow and try to get another game."

Ken Mandel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.