Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-5 to take a 2-1 lead in the World Series as Andy Pettitte picked up his 17th playoff win and drove in the first championship run by a Yankee pitcher in 45 years.

The Yankees rallied from an early three-run deficit at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia as Alex Rodriguez, Nick Swisher and Hideki Matsui all hit home runs to back Pettitte, whose scoring single in the fifth inning tied the game.

The team that’s won Game 3 to take a 2-1 lead has won nine of the past 10 World Series, the exception being the Yankees in 2003 against the Florida Marlins.

“I’m not trying to sound too overconfident or arrogant, but our club feels good about ourselves,” Pettitte said during a news conference. “We feel good about being up 2-1. We know there’s a lot of work left to do.”

The fourth game in Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship series is scheduled for today in Philadelphia, where Joe Blanton will start for the Phillies against the Yankees’ CC Sabathia. Sabathia was the losing pitcher in Game 1 after winning his first three playoff starts. Blanton has no record and a 4.66 earned run average in three playoff appearances, including one start.

After a one-hour, 20-minute rain delay last night, the Phillies scored three runs in the second inning off Pettitte, with Jayson Werth leading off the inning with the first of his two home runs.

Phillies Lead Early

Pedro Feliz doubled with one out, Carlos Ruiz walked and Hamels followed by dropping down a bunt that went for a hit between Pettitte and catcher Jorge Posada. With the bases loaded, Pettitte walked Rollins to force in a run and Shane Victorino’s sacrifice fly drove in another.

“It was a grind,” said Pettitte, who had allowed only three earned runs in his previous three World Series starts. “They had me up against the ropes and I was thankful I was able to get out of that.”

A promising start for Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels unraveled after three no-hit innings.

The Yankees pulled within 3-2 in the fourth inning, when Rodriguez snapped his 0-for-8 World Series start with an opposite-field, two-run homer off Hamels after a leadoff walk to Mark Teixeira. Rodriguez stopped at second base after the ball struck a television camera on top of the right-field fence and came back into play. The umpires ruled it was a homer after the first use of instant replay in a playoff game.

Major League Baseball instituted the use of replay last year to review home run calls. It was the 66th use of replay and the 23rd play to be overturned.

A-Rod’s Sixth

It was Rodriguez’s sixth home run of the postseason, tying a franchise playoff record set by Bernie Williams in 1996. It was also the Yankees’ 17th homer of the playoffs, surpassing the team’s previous high of 16 set in 1996, 2001 and 2003.

“It was a big hit,” Rodriguez said. “I think it woke our offense up a little bit. It was a little weird to have the first home run and the replay, but it was two big runs for us.”

The Yankees scored three more runs in the fifth, a rally initiated by a leadoff double by Nick Swisher, who was hitting .114 in the playoffs. Pettitte, a career .134 hitter, then tied the score by slapping a one-out single that dropped in front of Victorino in left-center field. The last Yankee pitcher to drive in a run during the World Series was Jim Bouton in 1964.

Derek Jeter dumped another single in front of Victorino and Johnny Damon roped a double to the right-centerfield gap that scored both Pettitte and Jeter. Hamels, the Most Valuable Player of last year’s World Series, would take the loss after allowing five runs in 4 1/3 innings.

‘Started to Snowball’

“The pitch to A-Rod, I thought he made a bad pitch,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. “After that, it looked like things kind of started to snowball on him.”

Swisher’s homer pushed the Yankees’ lead to 6-3 in the sixth before Werth answered in the bottom of the inning with a shot off the facing of the second deck in left field.

It gave Werth seven homers this postseason, breaking a team record set by Lenny Dykstra in 1993. Pettitte had given up just two homers in 66 innings of World Series play entering the game.

Posada had a two-out, run-scoring single in the seventh and Matsui added a pinch-hit homer in the eighth. It was the eighth time a Yankee had a pinch-hit homer in the World Series and the first since Jason Giambi in 2003.

Ruiz homered for the Phillies in the ninth before Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera came in to get the final two outs.

The Yankees are seeking their record-extending 27th world championship and first since 2000, while the Phillies are looking to become the first National League team to repeat as World Series champions since the Cincinnati Reds in 1975-76.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: November 1, 2009 01:55 EDT