[9] Philadelphia traded sweeps with the Los Angeles Dodgers in August and went 13–3 in their last 16 games,[8] to win the National League East title for the second consecutive season.

[12][13] The Tampa Bay Rays also began the season (their first after dropping the "Devil" from their name) with a winning record in the opening month of April.

[14] The team concluded the season, albeit with a 13–14 record in September, by winning the American League East title for the first time in franchise history.

[18] The Rays became the third MLB team in the post-1969 "Divisional Era" to make the World Series in their first trip to the playoffs, joining the 1969 New York Mets and the 1997 Florida Marlins.

The Rays loaded the bases off Phillies starter Cole Hamels with one out in the bottom of the third, but he also escaped this jam by getting Upton to ground into an inning-ending double play, and the score remained 2–0 in favor of Philadelphia.

In the top of the ninth, Philadelphia left two men on base, but Brad Lidge remained perfect in saves as he delivered a one-two-three inning to seal the 3–2 win.

Tampa Bay took a quick 2–0 lead in the first inning when Akinori Iwamura and B. J. Upton reached base with nobody out and scored on back-to-back groundouts by Carlos Peña and Evan Longoria.

The Phillies added another run off Price in the ninth when Carlos Ruiz hit a leadoff double, then scored with one out on an error by Longoria.

The score remained 2–1 in favor of Philadelphia until the sixth when Utley and Ryan Howard hit the 14th back-to-back home runs in World Series history, increasing their lead to 4–1.

Chad Durbin relieved Moyer and induced a groundout from Jason Bartlett, scoring Navarro and trimming the Phillies' lead to 4–3.

Balfour intentionally walked the next two batters, Shane Victorino and pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs, to load the bases, creating a force play at the plate.

Philadelphia took a quick 1–0 lead in the bottom of the first inning, as Jimmy Rollins led off with a double and scored when Pat Burrell later walked with the bases loaded.

The Phillies doubled their lead in the third when Chase Utley reached base on an error by Akinori Iwamura and scored on Pedro Feliz's RBI single.

Philadelphia scored in the first inning for the third consecutive game, taking a 2–0 lead when they loaded the bases with two outs off Rays starter Scott Kazmir, who then gave up a two-run single to Shane Victorino.

Tampa Bay cut the lead in half in the fourth; Carlos Peña doubled with one out and scored on Evan Longoria's RBI single, both players' first hits of the Series.

By retaking the lead in that half-inning, the Phillies put Hamels in line for the victory, which would have been his fifth win in the postseason, tying an MLB record.

In the top of the ninth, Brad Lidge gave up a one-out single to Dioner Navarro and a stolen base to pinch-runner Fernando Perez, but was able to retire Ben Zobrist and Eric Hinske to complete his perfect season of save opportunities and secure the World Series for the Phillies.

Cole Hamels was named the World Series MVP after winning one of his two starts with eight strikeouts, four earned runs off 10 hits, and a 2.77 ERA in 13 total innings pitched.

[43] With temperatures plummeting towards 40 °F (4 °C) and with a cold rain falling at Citizens Bank Park, some of the Phillies and Rays players opted for an Elmer Fudd look, wearing specially made caps with built-in ear flaps.

[44] The games were televised on Fox in the United States with Joe Buck and Tim McCarver (himself a former Phillies broadcaster) as booth announcers[45] and Chris Myers and Ken Rosenthal as field reporters.

Fox Sports en Español did the simulcast of the Series in Spanish-language with Ángel Torres, Miguel Morales and Cos Villa behind the microphones.

Locally, Dave Wills, Andy Freed, Dewayne Staats and Joe Magrane called the Series in English for the Rays on WHNZ-AM in Tampa, with Ricardo Tavaras and Enrique Oliu working the Spanish broadcast on St. Petersburg's WGES-AM.

Harry Kalas, Scott Franzke, Larry Andersen, and Chris Wheeler called the Phillies' English broadcasts on WPHT-AM in Philadelphia, with Spanish announcers Danny Martinez, Bill Kulik and Juan Ramos on WUBA.

The following year, MLB amended its broadcasting contracts to allow World Series teams' flagship radio stations to air the games with local announcers, due at least in part to this outcry from Philadelphia fans.

In both Nielsen ratings and total viewership, the 2008 edition of the Fall Classic set record lows for a televised World Series.

[50][51] The low numbers were partially attributed to factors beyond MLB's control, including the length of the series and the market size of the participating teams.

This also marked only the second time in MLB history that first-inning runs were scored in each of the first five games played in a World Series (it had previously occurred in 2003).

[49][59][60] Moyer grew up in the Philadelphia area as a Phillies fan and whose childhood hero was Steve Carlton, a member of the 1980 team, and whom he won against in his first Major League start.

The 2008 Rays were covered in depth in the book The Extra 2%: How Wall Street Strategies Took a Major League Baseball Team from Worst to First by Jonah Keri.

David Price won a World Series ring in 2018 with the Red Sox, but opted out of playing during the Dodgers' 2020 championship run due to COVID-19 concerns.