Cole Hamels, Chase Utley and the rest of the Philadelphia Phillies shook off a week's worth of waiting and turned it into a World Series win. Hamels escaped trouble to win his fourth postseason start, Utley hit a two-run homer in the first inning and the Phillies beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 in the opener Wednesday night. The Rays managing just five hits. The Phillies showed little evidence of rust. They'll try to make it two in a row at Tropicana Field when Brett Myers pitches against James Shields in Game 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. Ryan Madson pitched a perfect eighth. Lidge worked the ninth for his 47th save in 47 chances this year, silencing the Rays and their cowbell-clanging fans. Carl Crawford homered for Tampa Bay, but playoff stars B.J. Upton and Evan Longoria went a combined 0-for-8. The Rays didn't get a hit over the final four innings. Scott Kazmir struggled with his control and gave up three runs, six hits and four walks in six innings. The Phillies could have romped but went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position. Their other run even scored on an out, an RBI grounder by Carlos Ruiz. The crowd of 40,783 at the Trop wasn't given much to cheer about, though, with Crawford homering in the fourth and Akinori Iwamura hitting an RBI double in the fifth. But then Jayson Werth walked and Utley 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. Only 13 of Utley's 33 homers during the regular season were against lefties, and Kazmir allowed just one homer to a left-handed batter in 131 at-bats, with Boston's David Ortiz connecting Sept. 15. Philadelphia had a chance to pad the lead in the second following two walks, but center fielder B.J. Upton made a nifty one-hop throw to the plate on Rollins' fly to short center, and catcher Dioner Navarro applied the tag on Shane Victorino for the inning-ending out. Tampa Bay loaded the bases with one out in the third on two singles around a walk. But third baseman Pedro Feliz went to his left for an impressive pickup on Upton's grounder and started an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play. Ruiz hit an RBI grounder in the fourth following Victorino's leadoff single, but Crawford's homer on a hanging breaking ball cut the lead to a 3-1 in the bottom half. Iwamura reached down for an outside 3-2 pitch and drove an opposite-field RBI double to left-center in the fifth, and Upton followed with a foul pop that Ryan Howard reached into the stands to grab. Carlos Pena reached leading off the sixth when Howard allowed his grounder to pop off his glove and midsection for an error. But Hamels froze Pena with a pickoff throw and he was easily thrown out at second. Rays manager Joe Maddon screamed unsuccessfully for a balk call, maintaining Hamels' foot landed too far toward the plate. Utley singled with one out in the seventh, stole second and took third on a wild pitch. But J.P. Howell fanned Howard and, after Pat Burrell walked, Grant Balfour struck out Victorino. – AP __
