Rays get Cole shoulder

He is Josh Beckett, without the Boston hype.

He is Cole Hamels, evolving into a legend of the fall before our very eyes. If America tunes out the World Series because the Red Sox aren’t playing, America is missing a pretty fine show.

Here a burden, there a burden, everywhere a burden for Hamels to bear. He throws them all on his left shoulder, throws a bunch of changeups and throws himself into the record book.

It’s not really hyperbole to say that Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday was a must-win game for the Philadelphia Phillies, not when their starting pitching beyond Hamels makes you squirm, and probably them too.

So win he did, almost all by himself. Chase Utley hit a two-run home run, and Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge finished a five-hitter in a 3-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays, but the undisputed star of Game 1 was the newest Mr. October.

Hamels won Game 1 in the first round, Game 1 and the clinching game in the National League Championship Series, Game 1 in the World Series. He is 4-0 with a 1.55 earned-run average, joining Beckett, Dave Stewart and David Wells as the only pitchers with four victories in four postseason starts.

“He knows he’s got stardom written all over him,” Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee said. “He thrives on being in those situations.”

Remember when John Lackey called out his hitters after the Angels scored two runs in his Game 1 loss to Boston this year? Here’s how many runs the Phillies have scored for Hamels in each of his October starts: 3, 3, 5 and 3.

Hamels won them all.

“It’s nice to be able to be on a team where we can rely on somebody like that,” Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer said.

Curses, jinxes, burdens, bad bats--bring them on, all of them.

The Phillies haven’t won the World Series since 1980. The city of Philadelphia hasn’t won anything, in any sport, since 1983.

Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard combined to go hitless in nine at-bats in Game 1, with five strikeouts. The Phillies went hitless in 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Hamels won.

“Any time Cole pitches, I feel like we’re going to win,” Manager Charlie Manuel said. “And I feel like he’s got a good chance to shut somebody out. And also a chance to throw a no-hitter sometimes.”

He scattered five hits, in seven innings. He gave up two runs, with two walks and five strikeouts.

And, in his first World Series game, he relaxed and showed young pitchers everywhere that they can win without falling in love with the radar gun.

Hamels, who rarely tops 90 mph, put on a pitching clinic in prime time. There were pitching coaches all over the country, at every level of the game, pointing to Hamels and saying, “That’s what I mean.”

You can’t win on the speed gun, say the coaches. Hamels struck out Evan Longoria twice, once at 80 mph and once at 79 mph. He struck out Dioner Navarro twice, at 79 mph and at 75 mph, and keep in mind stadium radar guns tend to inflate actual velocity.

“I could never pitch like Cole Hamels,” Lidge said. “He’s so calm and collected out there. I’d want to throw 100 mph.”

You have to slow the game down, the coaches say. When Hamels gave up a home run to Carl Crawford in the fourth inning, he didn’t get mad and throw the next pitch as hard as he could. He threw it at 80 mph, for a called strike.

When Howard kicked a ground ball for an error that allowed Carlos Pena to reach base, representing the tying run with none out in the sixth inning, Hamels didn’t get mad and hurl his pickoff throw over the head of Howard. He did pick off Pena.

The Phillies say they never see him sweat.

“I think I’ll still kind of play it slow and easy until the World Series is over,” Hamels said, “until I really kind of get excited about it.”

In Philadelphia, they have tried to get him excited, to feel the urgency. They ask him about that 1980 championship team.

“I wasn’t born,” he said, “so I didn’t really follow it.”

They ask him about the pressure of the World Series. He’s 24, six years removed from high school in San Diego.

“When you play 10, 15 years and never make the World Series, then I think this kind of stage becomes a little bit more, and it can be either more burdening or it can be more exciting,” he said.

“For me, because I’ve played three years, been in the playoffs twice and World Series once, I think it’s kind of a normal thing, and I hope it is.”

We’ll see him again, in Game 5. The Phillies might be losing the series by then, but it won’t bother him.

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bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

How they scored

Phillies first: Rollins flied out to right fielder Zobrist. Werth walked on a full count. Utley homered to right on a 2-2 count, Werth scored. Howard grounded out, second baseman Iwamura to first baseman Pena. Burrell struck out.

2 runs, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left on. Phillies 2, Rays 0.

Phillies fourth: Victorino singled to center. Feliz singled to center, Victorino to second. Coste grounded out, first baseman Pena unassisted, Victorino to third, Feliz to second. Ruiz grounded out, shortstop Bartlett to first baseman Pena, Victorino scored. Rollins struck out.

1 run, 2 hits, 0 errors, 1 left on. Phillies 3, Rays 0.

Rays fourth: Pena grounded out, first baseman Howard to pitcher Hamels. Longoria grounded out, third baseman Feliz to first baseman Howard. Crawford homered to right on the first pitch. Aybar flied out to center fielder Victorino.

1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 0 left on. Phillies 3, Rays 1.

Rays fifth: Navarro struck out. Zobrist grounded out, third baseman Feliz to first baseman Howard. Bartlett walked on a full count. Bartlett stole second. Iwamura doubled to left, Bartlett scored. Upton fouled out to first baseman Howard.

1 run, 1 hit, 0 errors, 1 left on. Phillies 3, Rays 2.

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Sitting it out

Tampa Bay Rays reliever Troy Percival is at home in Riverside instead of at the World Series. PAGE 4