Japan captures 2nd-straight World Baseball Classic championship

By Al Balderas

The Orange County Register

(MCT)

LOS ANGELES _ Ichiro Suzuki doesn't get many chances to show off for a crowd at Dodger Stadium, but the Seattle Mariners outfielder took advantage of the opportunity on Monday night.

Suzuki drove in two runs with a two-out single in the top of the 10th inning to lift Japan to a 5-3 victory over South Korea and its second consecutive World Baseball Classic championship.

A near-capacity crowd of 54,846 watched the South Koreans send the game into extra innings with runs in the eighth and ninth innings, but that merely set the stage for Suzuki.

Seiichi Uchikawa started the 10th inning with a single to right field. He was sacrificed to second and moved to third when Akinori Iwamura singled to left field.

South Korean pitcher Chang Yong Lim almost worked his way out of the jam when he got pinch-hitter Munenori Kawasaki to pop out to shortstop, but he still had to retire Suzuki, who already had three hits.

Akinori moved into scoring position on defensive indifference, and Suzuki lined a 2-2 pitch into center field for the 5-3 lead.

Yu Darvish, who failed to close out the game in the ninth inning, got the job done in the 10th.

The Koreans, who were 2-3 against Japan in the tournament, had to feel good about its chances of winning its first WBC title because starting pitcher Jungkeun Bong had beaten the Japanese twice.

Though Bong entered the finale touting a 2-0 tournament record and 0.66 ERA, it didn't take long to see that he wasn't at his best. Bong needed 28 pitches to get through the first inning and had his pitch count swell to 74 by the end of the third.

Japan got runners on base in the first two innings and finally got someone home in the third.

Hiroyuki Nakajima led off that inning with an infield single, beating out a grounder to shortstop.

Norichika Aoki hit a line drive off the glove of second baseman Young Min Ko for an error. Nakajima took third on Kenji Johjima's grounder to third and scored on a single by Michihiro Ogasawara.

Japan's brought in a 1-1 tournament record and 1.87 ERA.

Iwakuma lived up to his hype by retiring the first 11 batters before Hyun Soo Kim hit a two-out single in the fourth. Iwakuma lost his shutout and lead in the fifth inning when Shin Soo Choo hit a home run to center to lead off the inning.

The home run was Choo's second since the tournament arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday. He hit a three-run home run in the first inning of South Korea's semifinal victory over Venezuela.

Sound defense and strong fundamentals kept the teams tied as they went into the seventh. Two batters after Choo's home run, Young Min Ko lined a single near the left-field line and tried to stretch the hit into a double. Uchikawa short-hopped the ball and easily threw out Ko at second.

Japan took a 2-1 lead in the seventh inning on an RBI single by Nakajima and added a run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Iwamura.

South Korea got one run back in the eighth and tied the score on Bum Ho Lee's two-out single in the bottom of the ninth.

Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka, who went 3-0 in the Classic, was selected as the MVP.

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© 2009, The Orange County Register (Santa Ana, Calif.).

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