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Kazmir, Rays Fall To Phillies In World Series Opener, 3-2

Tribune photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER

Akinora Iwamura is out at second base on a double play in the first inning.

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By MARC LANCASTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 23, 2008

Updated: 10/23/2008 02:13 am

ST. PETERSBURG - It didn't take the Phillies long to tire of the cowbells clanging all around Tropicana Field on Wednesday night. And it wasn't long before they shut them up, either.

Chase Utley saw to that, his two-run homer off Scott Kazmir in the top of the first inning reining in the home crowd and giving Philadelphia a lead it wouldn't relinquish in the World Series opener. The resulting 3-2 victory swung home-field advantage over to the National League champions and left the Rays in need of another one of those bounce-back games they seem to enjoy so much.

For even though they came back and kept the proceedings tight Wednesday, that Utley drive did plenty to change the feel of the game Tampa Bay had dreamed of since baseball arrived in St. Petersburg.

"I can't think of any other way to quiet them down," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "If you want to take the wind out of the sails and shut the cowbells up, get some home runs. That'll do it."

One was sufficient Wednesday with Phillies starter Cole Hamels in complete control on the other side. As well as he pitched, it was almost surprising to glance at the box score and see two runs on his ledger. Though eight Rays runners reached base in his seven innings, he came up with two big double plays and picked Carlos Pena off on an attempted steal to blunt the impact.

Hamels and relievers Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge stifled the Rays' biggest hitters, with B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria going a combined 0-for-12. Akinori Iwamura had three of the Rays' five hits, all off the lefty starter, and drove in Tampa Bay's second run with a double in the fifth. The Rays' other run also came courtesy of a left-handed hitter, Carl Crawford, who homered to right in the fourth.

Tonight's Game 2 sets up better for the Rays, with the hard-throwing right-hander Brett Myers on the mound for Philadelphia carrying the kind of profile that has been more appealing to Tampa Bay's hitters this season. In that way, it isn't dissimilar from the one-two step the Rays faced in the American League Championship Series. Defeated by Boston's crafty Daisuke Matsuzaka in the first game, they rallied against Josh Beckett in the second on their way to three consecutive wins.

Don't think that quick turnaround wasn't invoked repeatedly in the losing clubhouse Wednesday night.

"We just did it last series," said Ben Zobrist, who had the other hit for the Rays with a third-inning single. "The Red Sox beat us the first game, but we came back and won a close one the next game and we won two in a row right after that, too. You just never know. It's just one game, and we've just got to win tomorrow."

That's for sure. Going down 0-2 and heading to Philadelphia to face a cowbell-melting crowd and a new set of rules in a National League game would not be a palatable situation for the high-flying Rays.

So it's on them, particularly their offense, to come up bigger in Game 2. The Rays were sufficiently smothered that they only left three runners on base Wednesday night – all of them stranded by Upton. The hitting star of the ALCS bounced into routine double plays in the first and third innings - the latter coming with the bases loaded - then ended the fifth with Iwamura on second base when he popped foul to Ryan Howard.

At the same time, the Rays' pitchers did an outstanding of job damage control. The Phillies stranded 11 runners and were 0-for-13 with men on base. Their only run beyond Utley's homer, which followed a one-out walk of Jayson Werth, came on a groundout by Carlos Ruiz in the fourth.

That manufactured tally scored by Shane Victorino was enough to saddle Kazmir with the loss on a night that didn't see him pitch too badly. He acknowledged he was "a foot or two off" on the ball Utley hit over the fence and once again did not have pinpoint control, but for the most part he got out of the trouble he pitched into.

He did get a big assist from Upton in the second when Victorino foolishly attempted to tag up and try to score on a fly to very shallow left-center. Upton's one-hop throw to catcher Dioner Navarro took care of his speedy opposite number and grabbed a bit of momentum for the Rays, but it ebbed before long as the Trop simmered down.

The late innings amounted to playing out the string, despite the tight margin. The Phillies retired the last 11 Rays hitters in order and Tampa Bay's bullpen held serve with three shutout innings of its own – including Grant Balfour's most impressive showing since the Division Series. But all they were doing was preserving a deficit, and that didn't change in the ninth.

The universal sentiment from the Rays' clubhouse both before and after the game was that the enormity of the situation wasn't an issue. Lining up along the first-base line for introductions? This was the third time they'd done it in the last three weeks; the novelty was gone. They insisted it was just another day at the office.

After the loss, though, they were quick to turn to their recent experience in predicting they would be able to rally once again.

"It does help," said Kazmir. "We're all new here. Everyone's going through this the first time, so I guess you could say it feels a little bit easier after we were down 0-1 to Boston and came back and won it."

Of course, what would you expect them to say? Expecting a win behind James Shields in Game 2 is a must for the Rays at this point, and after all that has come before to get them to this point, they believe they know exactly how to get there.

"We've just got to believe and trust that tomorrow's going to be different," said Zobrist. "We're going to get that key hit. We're going to score those runs when we really need them. We're going to shut them down. I think everybody on this club really believes that."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227.

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