Japan beats U.S. 9-4 to set up WBC final vs S Korea

Monday 23rd March, 12:43 PM JST

LOS ANGELES —

Daisuke Matsuzaka was not solid, but his teammates chased Houston Astros ace Roy Oswalt with a five-run fourth inning as Japan beat the United States 9-4 in the World Baseball Classic semifinals Sunday.

Defending champion Japan will face archrival and Olympic gold winner South Korea for the fifth time this tournament in Monday’s championship game, having split four games in the first two rounds.

‘‘This is a historic win for us. It’s a significant boost for baseball in our country,’’ Japan manager Tatsunori Hara said.

‘‘It’s been a little more than a month since we first got together for a camp. We now have a wide variety of tactics, especially offense ones, and that led to the big fourth inning.’’

“Can you believe this? Look at the score. I feel so bad about this,” Tom Lasorda, Hall of Fame manager and WBC global ambassador, said from his seat behind home plate.

“I’m very, very disappointed. We had high hopes. This is the second time we were supposed to win. We taught these people the game.”

Japan turned a 2-1 deficit into a 6-2 lead in the fourth at Dodger Stadium on a fielding error by second baseman Brian Roberts, a sacrifice fly by Kenji Jojima and RBI hits from Akinori Iwamura, Munenori Kawasaki and Hiroyuki Nakajima.

Atsunori Inaba and Michihiro Ogasawa had back-to-back singles to start the inning, and Roberts mishandled a grounder by the next batter, Kosuke Fukudome, allowing Inaba to score the tying run.

Jojima followed with a fly ball to right to give Japan the lead for good at 3-2.

Oswalt was charged with six runs, four earned, and six hits in 3-2/3 innings.

Mark DeRosa doubled in two runs to pull Team USA within 6-4 in the top of the eighth, but Japan broke the game open in the bottom half, scoring three runs.

Matsuzaka allowed two runs and five hits in 4-2/3 innings, getting the win and improving his career WBC record to 6-0 in six starts.

‘‘I wasn’t very good tonight, but I managed to keep the team in the game,’’ the Boston Red Sox right-hander said.

Roberts led off the game with a homer over the center-field wall. The United States took a 2-1 lead on an RBI double by David Wright in the third, an inning after the first of Jojima’s two sacrifice flies tied the game.

Ichiro went 1-for-5 with an RBI single in the eighth.

‘‘When they led off the game with a home run, I thought we would win tonight. Three years ago, I homered leading off the game against them and we lost,’’ the Seattle Mariners star outfielder said. ‘‘The way we lost that game was very disappointing, so we just let the stress out this time.’’

In the 2006 WBC, Japan blew an early 3-0 lead and lost to the United States 4-3 in the first game of the second round at Anaheim Stadium. Japan later won a three-way tiebreaker over the United States and Mexico based on runs allowed and went on to capture the inaugural title.

Hiroyuki Nakajima, Ogasawara and Kawasaki each had two hits as Japan outhit the United States 10-9.

Yu Darvish pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out the final two batters.

‘‘I thought we played a good ball game,’’ Team USA manager Davey Johnson said.

‘‘Our pitchers walked the first hitters, and those guys scored (in the second and eighth innings), and we weren’t as sharp in the field as we usually are. Give Japan credit, they played a good ball game.’’

Jimmy Rollins went 4-for-4 with a walk for the United States.

Hisashi Iwakuma, the Rakuten Eagles’ 21-game winner last season, is scheduled to start for Japan in the final against former Atlanta Braves left-hander Bong Jung Keun, who has given up only one run over 10-2/3 innings in his two starts against Japan in the second Classic.



Go, Go JAPAN !