LOS ANGELES – The World Baseball Classic belongs to Japan.
Again.
Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th, and Japan beat reigning Olympic champion South Korea, 5-3, Monday night to win its second straight WBC title before a boisterous crowd of 54,846 at Dodger Stadium.
The Japanese won the inaugural tournament three years ago, beating Cuba in the final in San Diego.
South Korea had tied the game with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on Bum-Ho Lee’s run-scoring single off Japanese closer Yu Darvish (2-1), who got in trouble by issuing one-out walks to Hyun-Soo Kim and Tae-Kyun Kim, the 3-4 hitters in the lineup.
Darvish struck out Shin-Soo Choo before Lee lined a 1-1 pitch into left field, with pinch runner Jong-Wook Lee scoring easily from second.
Seiichi Uchikawa opened the 10th with a single, was sacrificed to second and took third on a single by Akinori Iwamura. After pinch hitter Munenori Kawasaki popped out, Iwamura took second on defensive interference.
Ichiro fouled off a pitch after it had bounced then lined the eighth pitch of the at-bat from Chang-Yong Lim (1-1) to center for his fourth hit. The Mariners’ star entered with a .211 average and three RBI in eight games.
Given the lead, Darvish worked around a leadoff walk to retire South Korea in the bottom of the 10th, setting off a wild celebration when he struck out Jin-Young Lee to end the four-hour game.
The game was the latest in an intense rivalry between the Asian powerhouses — a Far East version of a Yankees-Red Sox matchup. They split four previous games in the 16-team tournament, with Japan’s 6-2 triumph in San Diego last Thursday giving it the Pool 1 title in the second round.
Two days earlier, South Korea won a 4-1 decision, and its players planted the nation’s flag on the mound afterward — not the first time that’s happened. Ichiro made sure it wouldn’t happen on this night. Ichiro is 6-for-10 in the two WBC title games.
South Korea beat Japan twice last summer in the Beijing Olympics en route to the gold medal. The South Koreans also beat Japan twice in the inaugural WBC three years ago before the Japanese won their semifinal matchup. And South Korea beat Japan to win the bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics after losing to its rival earlier in the games.
Japan, which outhit South Korea 15-5 and blew several scoring opportunities while stranding 14, took a 3-1 lead with single runs in the seventh and eighth. Yasuyuki Kataoka singled off Hyun-Wook Jong to open the seventh, stole second, took third on Ichiro’s bunt single and scored on Hiroyuki Nakajima’s single. Japan had a chance to blow the game open, but after Ichiro took third on Norichika Aoki’s fly to deep right, Kenji Johjima grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Iwamura’s sacrifice fly off Hyunjin Ryu in the eighth gave the Japanese a two-run lead. The run was charged to Jong, who left after giving up a one-out single to Uchikawa. Atsunori Inaba followed with a ground-rule double before Iwamura’s fly to left.
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