After a rain delay of 1 hour 20 minutes at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia lefthander Cole Hamels, pitching against one of his boyhood heroes, Andy Pettitte, looked much like the World Series Most Valuable Player of 2008 when Hamels won four postseason games. For a while.

But, clutching a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, Hamels allowed an instant-replay, two-run homer to Alex Rodriguez on a drive to right that hit a camera atop the wall instead of just the wall, as had originally been ruled.

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"They had a good chance to see it in New York, or wherever the headmaster is," said Rodriguez, whose homer was his first hit in the Series. "I’m just glad we got a good ruling."

Back in the game, the Yankees then drove Hamels from the mound in the next inning and proceeded to an 8-5 triumph that gave them a 2-1 edge in the Series, with their ace, CC Sabathia, lined up on three days’ rest to pitch Game 4 Sunday night.

"For three innings, (Hamels) was real good," said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. "That’s kind of been the pattern.

"At times, I think he gets a little upset with himself."

Meanwhile, Pettitte, making his 12^th World Series start, second most in history _ 10 behind Yankees Hall of Famer Whitey Ford _ also extended his record for postseason wins to 17 as he held the Phillies’ lefthanded-hitting position players to no hits in nine at-bats with six strikeouts. Pettitte, however, said he struggled with his location all night.

"I’m not going to lie to you," said Pettitte. "I couldn’t put the ball where I wanted to.

"I can’t remember winning a (postseason) game where I’ve struggled like I did tonight.’

But, forced to hit because there is no designated hitter for the National League home portion of the Series, Pettitte helped himself by driving in the tying run with a single in the fifth. He later scored on a two-run double by Johnny Damon, just getting to the plate ahead of teammate Derek Jeter.

"I was gassed," said the slow-moving Pettitte.

On another potentially historic note, St. Louisan Ryan Howard crept even closer to a record, a dubious one, when he fanned three more times, giving him nine for the first three games. With at least two more games assured, Howard is just three strikeouts short of Willie Wilson’s Series mark of 12 for Kansas City, set in a six-game Series in 1980.

For the third straight game, the Phillies jumped ahead. Jayson Werth, clouting the first of his two homers, blasted a drive to left to open the second. Then, a Hamels bunt which neither Pettitte nor catcher Jorge Posada picked up, led to two more runs.

Hamels didn’t allow a hit until the fourth until the first instant replay in postseason history (two seasons’ worth).

All six umpires conferred near the mound for the third game in a row and then four of them went to the replay room under the stands. It wasn’t long before St. Louisan Gerry Davis, the crew chief, emerged and signaled home run for Rodriguez. The homer followed a walk to Mark Teixeira.

Manuel, asked about the play, said, "I went down there (to see a replay) and. . . it looked like it hit the camera. It looked like the camera was out over the fence. The umpire told me before the game that they had talked about that and if hit the camera that it was going to be a home run. They did not talk to me about it."

Davis said that since the umpires had no control over the cameraman, it was decided before the Series began that any ball hitting it would be a home run.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said he hadn’t seen the play well but he was heeding the advice of his coaches, who told him they thought the ball hit the camera. Girardi then went out to voice his doubt to right-field umpire Jeff Nelson, who had made the initial call of "in play."

It all came apart for Hamels in the fifth. Nick Swisher, who had been four for 36 (.111) in postseason play, doubled past third. Melky Cabrera fanned and then Pettitte, a career .134 batsman, looped a game-tying single to center. The RBI was the first by a Yankees pitcher in the World Series since Jim Bouton had one against the Cardinals in 1964, several years before the designated hitter was introduced.

Pettitte now has three hits in World Series play, a fact of which he reminded Girardi.

"He let me know he had one off Kevin Brown and one off Randy Johnson and now he has one off Cole Hamels," said Girardi.

After Pettitte’s hit, center fielder Shane Victorino then misplayed a similar looper by Jeter. Had Victorino played the ball on a hop, he easily would have forced the lumbering Pettitte at second. But he tried for a sliding catch and both runners were safe.

Damon broke the 3-3 tie with his double to right center and, after a walk to Teixeira, Hamels was pulled, to some boos, for rookie J.A. Happ.

Swisher, who had been benched in the previous game of the Series, launched a long homer to left to make it 6-3 in the sixth.

Werth hit an even longer one to left center in the Phillies’ sixth. The homer was the seventh this postseason, a Phillies record, for the Chatham Glenwood (Il.) product and grandson of former Cardinals bonus baby Dick "Ducky" Schofield.

But the Yankees scored once each in the seventh and eighth, with pinch hitter Hideki Matsui hitting a homer in the eighth. Those runs offset a solo homer by the Phils’ Carlos Ruiz in the ninth.

The Yankees’ bullpen, which, other than ace closer Mariano Rivera, had been a bit shaky lately, retired seven in a row before Ruiz homered off Phil Hughes to cut the lead to three runs and induced Girardi to go to Rivera for the final two outs, even though a save technically was not in play.

The Rodriguez homer clearly was the turning point both in the game.

"I thought the first two days I got pitched to tough," said Rodriguez, who fanned six times in eight hitless at-bats in the first two games of his first World Series after a strong first two rounds of the playoffs.

"But," said Rodriguez, "I also felt I helped the opposing pitchers by swinging at balls that were borderline and not strikes."

Controversy seems to follow Rodriguez although he has had a hand in it, too. This spring, he was dogged by charges that he had used steroids, which he then admitted to and he also missed the start of the season because he had to have hip surgery.

"After spring training and all the stuff I went through, I felt I was up against the wall," said Rodriguez. "I hit rock bottom and I was either going to stay there or come out fighting.

"I had no expectation and nothing to lose. I basically sold out for the team."