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 keep alive their hopes of a second straight title.

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 homers in the 1977 World Series, for the most ever.

Southpaw pitcher Cliff Lee, who won the Series opener, baffled Major League Baseball's highest-scoring line-up for a second time to pull the Phillies within 3-2 in the best-of-seven final, which continues on Wednesday 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 on Wednesday at Yankee Stadium, where game seven would be played on Thursday if necessary.

Either way, the title will be decided at the new Yankee Stadium, a $US1.5 billion ($A1.66 billion) ballpark that opened this year.