PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania: Chase Utley blasted two home runs, giving him a record-tying five in the World Series, and reigning champion Philadelphia beat the New York Yankees 8-6 on Monday to sustain repeat title hopes.
Utley smacked a three-run homer in the first inning and belted a solo round-tripper in the seventh to match Reggie Jackson, the Yankee star who smashed five in the 1977 World Series, for the most homers in any Series.
Southpaw pitcher Cliff Lee, who won the Series opener, baffled Major League Baseball's highest-scoring lineup for a second time to pull the Phillies within 3-2 in the best-of-seven final, which continues today at New York.
Utley, who pounded a pair of homers to support Lee's game-one victory, joined Kansas City's Willie Aikens from 1980 as the only players with two multi-homer games in the same World Series since the event's 1903 debut.
Philadelphia forced a sixth game Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, where game seven would be played tomorrow if necessary. Either way, the title will be decided in Yankee Stadium, a $1.5 billion ballpark that opened this year.
Only six of 40 teams in World Series history that trailed 3-1 have ever rallied to win the crown, but no such team has even been able to force a seventh game against the Yankees.
The Yankees are trying to win a 27th World Series title, the greatest run of championship success in American sport. The Yankees, whose 201 million-dollar payroll is baseball's highest, have not won the World Series since 2000.
But no World Series champion since Minnesota in 1991 has used a three-man starting rotation of pitchers as the Yankees have with right-hander A.J. Burnett and southpaws C C Sabathia and Andy Pettitte.
Utley and Raul Ibanez each homered to give the Phillies an 8-2 lead in the seventh inning, which also featured Ryan Howard striking out for a 12th time in the Series, tying a futility mark set in 1980 by Kansas City's Willie Wilson.
But the Yankees, baseball's best come-from-behind team in the regular season and comeback winners in seven of 10 playoff games, rallied in the late innings.
Johnny Damon opened the eighth with a single and took third on Mark Teixiera's double. Both scored on a double by Alex Rodriguez, who advanced on a ground out and scored on a Robinson Cano fly out to pull New York within 8-5.
Rodriguez, the boyfriend of actress Kate Hudson, has set a Yankee record by knocking in 18 playoff runs, his two in the eighth sending Lee to the showers.
South Korean relief pitcher Park Chan Ho entered and retired all three Yankees he faced to end the eighth.
But Jorge Posada doubled off Phillies reliever Ryan Madson to open the ninth inning and Japanese pinch-hitter Hideki Matsui followed with a single to left, bringing Derek Jeter to the plate as the potential tying run.
Jeter grounded into a double play, although Posada scored from third base, and after a single by Damon, Madson struck out Teixeira to finally bring Philadelphia the victory.
Rodriguez, heckled by "You Took Steroids" chants for a pre-season confession of doping while with Texas from 2001-2003, smacked a two-out double to left field in the first inning to score Damon for a 1-0 Yankee lead.
But the Phillies answered immediately as Jimmy Rollins smacked a leadoff single up the middle and Shane Victorino took first after being struck on the right hand by a throw from game two winner Burnett, starting on short rest.
