Baseball: U.S. ekes out 2-1 win over Japan to reach WBC final

The United States defeated Japan 2-1 in the second semifinal of the World Baseball Classic on Tuesday, setting up a date with Puerto Rico in Wednesday's final.

The U.S. team advanced to the WBC final for the first time, while Japan, which was looking for its third title in the tournament's fourth edition, lost in the semifinals for the second consecutive time.

The game started out a defensive battle, Samurai Japan surrendering its first run in the fourth inning on a U.S. rally that started with a fielding error by second baseman Ryosuke Kikuchi in wet conditions at Dodger Stadium.

A hard-hit grounder from Christian Yelich bounded off the heel of Kikuchi's hand and onto center field, allowing the hitter to reach second base. Andrew McCutchen drove in Yelich from second base with a clean single to left field off Japan starter Tomoyuki Sugano.

In the sixth, Kikuchi, a four-time Golden Glove winner in Nippon Professional Baseball, made up for his earlier lapses by crushing a solo homer to right off reliever Nate Jones to make it 1-1.

The Americans then broke through against Japan's bullpen late in the game.

Reliever Kodai Senga recorded four straight strikeouts after taking the mound in the seventh inning, but with one out in the eighth, Brandon Crawford connected for a deep single to right, followed by a double off the left-field wall by Ian Kinsler.

A slow-rolling grounder off the bat of Adam Jones scored Crawford as third baseman Nobuhiro Matsuda failed to field the ball cleanly and had to take the force out at first rather than throw home.

Senga was tagged with the loss after allowing the run, despite striking out five in two innings.

In the bottom of the eighth, pinch hitter Seiichi Uchikawa led off with a single to right off Mark Melancon, the San Francisco Giants reliever who just joined the U.S. squad from its designated pitcher pool. Melancon recorded two outs before issuing a free pass to Norichika Aoki on four pitches.

U.S. manager Jim Leyland opted to switch Melancon for Pat Neshek, who escaped the jam on a flyout to right from DeNA BayStars slugger Yoshitomo Tsutsugo.

Luke Gregerson served as the U.S. closer and secured three outs in the ninth for the win.

Early in the game, there were a few fielding mishaps but neither team could capitalize on them.

In the second inning, U.S. starter Tanner Roark deflected a ball hit back at him, making it a tougher play for second baseman Kinsler who was unable to get off a throw. But the following batter, Matsuda, hit the first pitch into an inning-ending double play.

In the third, with Buster Posey aboard after a single to left, Giancarlo Stanton hit a sharp grounder to third that Matsuda fielded cleanly and whipped to Kikuchi as part of a double play attempt.

After a video review, however, Kikuchi was found to have failed to touch the bag while holding the ball, so Japan got only the out at first. Though Posey advanced to third, Kinsler was unable to drive him home, instead grounding out to end the inning.

==Kyodo