Cuba, Japan reach final

SAN DIEGO – Major leaguers or not, Cuba’s dominance on baseball’s international stage is unparalleled.

The Cubans are finally getting a chance to show it in the United States, too.

Osmani Urrutia hit a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning, Yadel Marti capped his sensational tournament by combining with Pedro Lazo on an eight-hitter, and Cuba defeated the Dominican Republic 3-1 Saturday to reach the championship game of the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

In Saturday’s other game, Japan beat South Korea for the first time in three tries to reach Monday night’s championship game at Petco Park.

Byung-Hyun Kim gave up another big home run, a two-run shot by pinch-hitter Kosuke Fukudome in the seventh inning that broke a scoreless tie and sent Japan to a 6-0 victory over South Korea.

Cuba 3, Dominican Republic 1: Cuba, wearing its lucky red uniforms for the second time in the tournament, avenged a 7-3 loss to the Dominicans from five days earlier and moved within one victory of adding another baseball title to the country’s list.

Chants of “Cuba! Cuba!” began in the late innings from the crowd of 41,268 for a squad with no major leaguers. The Cubans sprinted onto the field to celebrate when Lazo struck out pinch-hitter Alfonso Soriano to end it. After hugs and high-fives, the Cubans acknowledged their fans by waving their caps.

Yoandry Garlobo had three hits, and Alexei Ramirez and Frederich Cepeda each drove in runs in their team’s decisive seventh inning that featured several mistakes by the Dominicans right after they took a 1-0 lead in the sixth on an unearned run.

Cuba, champion of the 2005 World Cup, 2004 Olympics and ‘03 Pan American Games played in Santo Domingo, is clearly in midseason form while the Dominicans are still working to find their rhythm after the winter.

The Cubans had to wait until the Dominicans went to their bullpen following six shutout innings by reigning American League Cy Young Award winner Bartolo Colon to get anything going on offense.

Just like the Americans, who lost 2-1 to Mexico on Thursday night for a surprising early exit from the Classic, most of the Dominican players will head back to their major league camps wondering what went wrong and left to wait until 2009 for another shot in the WBC.

The Dominicans’ All-Star roster included Albert Pujols, Adrian Beltre, Miguel Tejada, David Ortiz and Moises Alou, dubbed the best in the world.

Marti pitched 4 1/3 shutout innings to extend his scoreless streak to 12 2/3 innings in the tournament. He didn’t give up a run in four WBC appearances.

Lazo then went the final 4 2/3 innings for the win. He retired Ortiz and Beltre on fly balls in the eighth with the potential tying runs aboard.

Marti received a visit on the mound before facing cleanup hitter Ortiz in the first with two runners on, and Lazo and another pitcher immediately began warming up. But Ortiz grounded into an inning-ending double play on a 3-2 pitch.

Japan 6, South Korea 0: Koji Uehara pitched seven shutout innings for Japan.

South Korea entered the nightcap as the WBC’s only unbeaten team with a 6-0 record, going 3-0 in both qualifying rounds. Japan was 3-3, including a pair of one-run losses to the Koreans, and 1-2 in the second round.

The Japanese reached the semifinals by winning a tiebreaker over the United States and Mexico. They only got another crack at South Korea because Mexico beat the Americans 2-1 Thursday in the last game of the second round.

Nobuhiko Matsunaka doubled off losing pitcher Byung Doo Jun to start the seventh. Kim relieved and struck out Hitoshi Tamura before Fukudome hit a 1-1 pitch into the right-field seats.

Kim hit the next batter with his first pitch, prompting plate umpire Bob Davidson to warn both benches.

After a wild pitch, Tomoya Satozaki hit a ground-rule double to make it 3-0 and chase Kim. Pinch-hitter Shinya Miyamoto and Ichiro Suzuki added RBI singles off Min Han Son to complete Japan’s decisive five-run rally.

Ichiro, the Seattle Mariners star and one of only two major leaguers on the Japanese roster, had three hits and two stolen bases.

Kim was a goat in the 2001 World Series for Arizona.