WBC Ends

Japan Wins 5-3

Japan thus defended its WBC title, but it was no easy pickings.

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 10-6 in the finals at Petco Park in San Diego.
South Korea had tied the game at 3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on Lee Bum-ho\'s run-scoring single off Japanese closer Yu Darvish (2-1), who got in trouble by issuing one-out walks to Kim Hyun-soo and Kim Tae-kyun, the 3-4 hitters in the lineup.

Darvish struck out Choo Shin-soo before Lee lined a 1-1 pitch into left field, with pinch runner Lee Jong-wook 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.
Suzuki managed to foul off a pitch after it had bounced then lined the eighth pitch of the at-bat from Lim Chang-yong (1-1) to center for his fourth hit. The Mariners' star entered with a .211 average and three RBIs in eight previous 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 Lee Jin-young to end the four-hour game.

I had 6 heart attacks watching the game from start to finish. Korea were a lot tougher than USA as it turned out and deservedly were in the finals. You don't really get a view of how tough a team plays until you sit there and watch the grinding at-bats and the dirty big flyballs. They swing the bats hard in South Korea. the power hitters in the heart of their lineup were every bit as scary as the best of the MLBers from any country. And they played great defense.

The Japanese knocked out 15 hits over the 10 innings and seemed to get a runner in scoring position in just about every inning, but somehow the Koreans kept squirming out of these tight spots and keeping Japan within distance. There were no blow out innings, no long sequences of hits. Every at-bat was contested hard by the Korean hurlers, and the Japanese never looked like they were going to run away with it.

The Koreans caught up with the Japanese twice, the second time in the bottom of the ninth with 2 down, and strikes on the hitter. They're mentally tough guys, and you just have to respect that- and the wonder of Baseball.

Hisashi Iwakuma was a revelation. The guy can really gather his strikes nice and low and pitches to both sides of the plate. The command was sufficient to stifle the Korean bats for 7-2/3 innings, holding them to 2 runs.

It was also the second time I've seen Yu Darvish pitch. His 9th inning was all tense and herky jerky, but his 10th was a lot more powerful and precise, even though he gave up a lead off walk. He's got great tools but he\'s got a way to go yet in the experience stakes. It was very uncomfortable watching Darvish walk 2 guys and give up a hit after letting the count go to 3-1.

Then there was Ichiro who battled the Korean closer Lim Chang-Yong for 8 pitches to slap a 2-run single, who I think is going to go down in the annals of baseball as having balls of steel. That was just a magnificent at-bat. Also, full credit to the Korean manager In-Sik Kim for not walking Ichiro who was 3-for-5 at point in the evening, his bat suddenly finding form in the heat of a tense final. It was a gutsy, honorable call.

The really telling stats are how the only team to beat Korea was Japan and the only team to beat Japan was Korea. They played each other 5 times in 17 days, while playing other teams in between, which in retrospect seems like a novelty. It was one heck of a tournament an I'm already exhausted.