PHILADELPHIA - The tarp was on the field about a half-hour before the scheduled game time, but Cole Hamels walked out to the bullpen, giving the rain-soaked crowd at Citizens Bank Park something to cheer about. But once he got there, he sat down on the top of the bullpen bench and waited.

Hamels and Carlos Ruiz sprawled out, tucked out of the rain, and waited for any sort of word to come down. While his upbringing in San Diego may not have prepared him for the weather of the Northeast, it prepared him for this sort of moment leaving him laid back enough to look as if he was less concerned than any of the fans in the stands.

When it finally subsided, he seemed oblivious as he loosened up with a military contingent marching past him and readying to unfurl a giant flag. It was fitting as Hamels began to throw that Andy Pettitte did the same nearby, just as oblivious to his surroundings, focused only on the task at hand.

Hamels had been watching Pettitte nearly as long as he'd been watching baseball. When Pettitte made his first postseason start as a 23-year-old on Oct. 4, 1995, Hamels was just 11 years old.

"I watched Andy Pettitte a lot growing up," Hamels said. "Andy Pettitte and Tom Glavine, those were the guys I emulated growing up when I was a little kid. They were always in the playoffs. I always got to watch them. They always pitched big games and they won.

"Andy Pettitte has been very effective for a long time, and he's always the kind of guy I've looked at and hoped to be one day in his shoes. Now I'm here and I'm going to be able to face him in the World Series and he's on the Yankees again. So it's just kind of a big game just for the fact of he was one of the guys I watched when I was a kid."

But he didn't learn all the lessons, namely how to survive adversity. While Pettitte rarely has seen the sort of struggles that have befallen Hamels this season, he clung for another day, another year, to his big-game reputation. Hamels though, saw his reputation take another ugly hit.

Staked to a 3-0 lead, Hamels gave up five runs in 4 1/3 innings, the tying run coming when Pettitte flared a base hit into center field to drive in Nick Swisher. Derek Jeter followed with another base hit parachuted into center and then Johnny Damon ripped a curveball for a two-run double, giving the Yankees a 5-3 lead. It marked the fourth consecutive postseason start for Hamels this year in which he hasn't made it through more than 5 1/3 innings.

Pettitte was making his 12th World Series start Saturday night in his eighth different World Series. But for Hamels, this was becoming his time, too. He was the World Series Most Valuable Player last season, winning Game 1 and then getting a no-decision while the Phillies finished off the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 5. He slipped back to No. 3 in the rotation this time around, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel inserting newcomers Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez ahead of him in New York.

But Hamels hardly seemed rattled by his troubles that have set him back, setting the Yankees down in order in the first inning and not flinching a step when he hit Alex Rodriguez with a pitch leading off the second and A-Rod made a circular run to first, coming nearly halfway to the mound as he jogged.

Through his first three innings of work, Hamels out-hit the Yankees, beating out a bunt trickled down the third-base line and helping a three-run second inning. On the mound, he didn't allow a hit the only runner coming on the hit batter.

In the fourth inning, Hamels lost his no-hitter and his shutout. He walked Mark Teixeira with one out and then Rodriguez floated an 0-1 pitch into the right field corner where it was at first scored a double, but then video-reviewed and ruled a home run.