2008 Phillies World Series Merchandise

The game was split over 3 days time. Monday night ended in the suspension of the game at a 2-2 tie as a torrential downpour engulfed the city of brotherly love. The game continued Wednesday night, and the Phillies jumped out to a 3-2 lead. In the top of the 7th, Rocco Baldelli homered to tie it up at 3. Soon after, in the bottom of the seventh, Pedro Feliz hit a single up the middle to score Eric Bruntlett to go up 4-3. J.C. Romero took the Rays down in the 8th, and Brad Lidge shut em down in the 9th so the Phillies could win their 2nd World Series in 126 long years!

The Philadelphia Phillies and Tampa Bay Rays opened a most unexpected World Series on Wednesday night. Cole Hamels escaped trouble to win his fourth postseason start, Chase Utley hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2.

Hamels, MVP of the NL championship series, improved to 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA this postseason. He had only a pair of 1-2-3 innings, but the composed 24-year-old left-hander allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings.

Jayson Werth walked with one out in the first and Utley, after fouling off a bunt attempt, homered on a 2-2 pitch, sending the ball into the right-field seats and becoming the 34th player to homer in his first Series at-bat.

Brad Lidge came on in the 9th to record his 47th straight save since becoming a member of the Philadelphia Phillies.

After dropping the opener to ace Cole Hamels and the Phillies, the young Rays rebounded from a rare home loss and earned their first World Series win with help from a squeeze play and a checked swing.

"That might be one of our sloppiest games all year," manager Charlie Manuel said. "I'm concerned about us hitting with guys on base, because it looks like at times we might be trying a little too hard. But we can fix that."

James Shields threw shutout ball into the sixth, out pitching Brett Myers and working out of trouble just as Hamels did for a 3-2 win Wednesday night.

"Freak things kind of happened there," Phillies backup-infielder/outfielder Eric Bruntlett said after scoring the winning run at 1:47 a.m.

Carlos Ruiz topped off a wacky ninth inning with an infield squib roller with the bases loaded, and the Phillies outlasted the Rays 5-4 early Sunday in Game 3 for a 2-1 lead.

The 10:06 pm start was the latest in World Series history, but the action was of championship caliber. 9 innings of small-ball style baseball brought to you by two new rivals : Team Power (Phillies) and Team Speed (Rays).

A day after hitting his first homer of the Series, Howard connected twice. The major league leader in homers and RBIs hit a three-run drive off Andy Sonnanstine that made it 5-1 in the fourth and sent screams through a whooped-up crowd of 45,903. Howard added a long, two-run shot against Dan Wheeler in the eighth.

Joe Blanton became the first pitcher in 34 years to homer in the World Series as the Phillies proved the excellence over the Tampa Bay Rays 10-2 on Sunday night to move within one win of its first title since 1980.

Ryan Howard knows Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park will go nuts with one more win.

"It will be absolute bedlam," he said. "It will be one of the craziest places on earth. It's kind of scary to imagine."

The Phillies hit 4 homers, Jayson Werth added a two-run blast, and Jimmy Rollins went 3 for 5. Once again, the Phils bullpen was amazing, allowing 1 hit over 3 innings with 5 strikeouts to close out the game.

Kid Cole started by winning the NLCS MVP award after going 2-0. Then he went on to win the WORLD SERIES MVP by going 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA and 8 K's.

Photos by Associate Press Release 10-22-08,10-23-08, 10-25-08, 10-26-08