World Series begins Wednesday

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Oct. 21 (UPI) -- The World Series, first played 105 years ago, will open Wednesday in the home park of a team that before this season had never won more games than it had lost.

The Tampa Bay Rays, one of the unlikeliest teams ever to play for the championship of Major League Baseball, will host the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of the best-of-seven showdown.

Tampa Bay, an 11-year-old franchise with no previous history of success, became the surprise winner of the American League East this season, knocked off the Chicago White Sox in the division round and then outlasted Boston in seven games to capture the league title.

Philadelphia, a member of the National League since its formation in the 1800s, will be looking for only its second World Series crown.

The Phillies will start Cole Hamels in Game 1. He has won all three of his playoff starts this year, limiting the opposition to 13 hits in 22 innings with 22 strikeouts. He was named MVP of the NL Championship Series, during which he held the Los Angeles Dodgers to three runs in 14 innings.

Tampa Bay will counter with Scott Kazmir, who brought the Rays to the brink of a World Series appearance by throwing six shutout innings in Game 5 of the ALCS.

After Kazmir left that game, the Rays blew a seven-run lead and lost to the Red Sox. That series eventually went the distance before the Rays recorded a 3-1 win in Game 7.

The Rays will have home-field advantage in the World Series because of the American League's 15-inning win in the All-Star Game in July. Philadelphia's Brad Lidge was the losing pitcher in that contest.