The bottle in his hand was already half-empty, but Cole Hamels seemed a bottomless source of bubbly.

In the soggy celebration of Philadelphia's World Series championship, Hamels stood Thursday night before the plastic shield protecting his locker, giddily drenched in sparkling wine. The bottle bore the label of Domaine Ste. Michelle, a French-sounding brand imported all the way from Washington state, and the 24-year-old pitcher had been branded the Series' Most Valuable Player.

“This will be a trivia question for the next couple hundred years,” Hamels said, happily. “And I get to be a part of it.”

The precocious left-hander had done nothing of note in Philadelphia on the last night of the tournament. He was a uniformed spectator to the three-inning speed date that completed Monday's suspended Game 5 as a 4-3 Philadelphia victory over the Tampa Bay Rays. Yet for a few batters on this brief, bizarre but rain-free evening, Hamels stood to be the winning pitcher on a night he never needed to warm up.

Jayson Werth's bloop single scored pinch hitter Geoff Jenkins with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning to enable the Phillies to break the 2-2 tie Hamels had helped forge Monday night. Hamels was still the pitcher of record, and in line to become the first pitcher to win five starts in the same postseason, until Rocco Baldelli's seventh-inning home run temporarily re-tied the score.

A couple of hundred years hence, trivia experts may recall that Phillies left-hander J.C. Romero was credited with the victory because Pedro Feliz singled through the Rays' drawn-in infield to score pinch runner Eric Bruntlett in the bottom of the seventh inning. For contemporary Phillies fans, every detail of this drama will be recounted and savored for generations.

For the first time in 28 years, since Tug McGraw struck out Willie Wilson at a ballpark since imploded, the Phillies are champions of baseball.

Before Saturday's Game 3, country singer Tim McGraw sprinkled some of his late father's ashes on the pitcher's mound at Citizens Bank Park. Last night, Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer prevailed on the groundskeepers to exhume the pitching rubber for his personal collection.

Hamels, who took home the shinier souvenir, confessed that the time finally had come for him to start a trophy case.

“This is the easiest game I ever had to deal with,” he said. “I didn't have to do a thing, and I was in the starting lineup.”

Hamels had pitched six innings during Monday night's deluge, and he began last night's proceedings as the next scheduled hitter. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel chose Jenkins to bat in Hamels' place, and the pinch-hitter responded with a full-count double to right-center field against Tampa Bay reliever Grant Balfour.

Playing at home, Manuel played for one run. Jimmy Rollins moved Jenkins to third base with a sacrifice bunt. Werth then popped a bloop single just out of the reach of Rays' second baseman Akinori Iwamura.

“The wind played tricks on Aki big-time,” said Tampa Bay's Cliff Floyd, the designated hitter idled by National League rules. “ … We haven't played in these type of conditions all year.

“We just didn't play the same type ball (compared to the regular season). It's not a frustrating thing. It's a learning thing.”

One of the harder lessons the Rays learned was taught by Phillies second baseman Chase Utley. After Baldelli's one-out homer tied the score in the seventh, Jason Bartlett singled and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt.

Iwamura then hit a ground ball that left Utley no play at first base, but his bluff throw emboldened Bartlett to try to score from second base. Utley's peg to catcher Carlos Ruiz resulted in a third-out tag play and erased the last Rays player to reach third base.

“I was just running hard and (third base coach Tom) Foley sent me and I tried to score,” Bartlett said. “It's a hard baseball play. If I'm not hustling, maybe he stops me. But that's how you should play — hustle all the time.”

Pat Burrell opened Philadelphia's seventh inning with a double to deep center field, a 1-1 curve ball Tampa Bay reliever J.P. Howell immediately regretted. Replaying the pitch in his mind, Howell thought Burrell was “cheating” on the breaking pitch and would therefore have been susceptible to a fastball.

Bruntlett ran for Burrell, moving to third base on a groundout by Shane Victorino, scoring the winning run on Feliz's single through the middle.

Phillies reliever Brad Lidge, whose neglected to blow a save all season, closed out the Rays in the ninth, striking out pinch hitter Eric Hinske for the final out.

Hamels was standing on the top step of the dugout when the game ended and was soon in the middle of the celebratory scrum near the pitcher's mound. His first emotion, he said later, was relief, but there was a lot to the experience he was still trying to process.

“As I go into this offseason and each week creeps closer and closer to a new, fresh season, I might think about it more,” he said. “I know people will look at me differently, probably expect more out of me.”

For starters, they will expect him to get to work on that trophy case.

Tim Sullivan is a sports columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune. Contact him at tim.sullivan@uniontrib.com.

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