Japan enters second round in World Baseball Classic

TOKYO – Ichiro Suzuki found his stroke and Japan advanced to the second round of the World Baseball Classic with a 14-2 rout of South Korea in seven innings on Saturday.

Suzuki went hitless in five at-bats as Japan struggled to beat China in the tournament opener, but had three hits and scored three times against the Koreans.

“It’s been a while since I felt comfortable at the plate,” Suzuki said. “In an important game like this, you are just trying to advance the runners.”

Olympic champion South Korea will play China on Sunday with the winner also advancing.

Playing before a capacity crowd of 45,640, Suzuki set the tone in the game’s first at-bat with a sharp line drive to right off Kim Kwang-hyun.

The Seattle outfielder advanced to second on Hiroyuki Nakajima’s single and scored on Norichika Aoki’s single up the middle.

“His leadoff single was huge,” Japan manager Tatsunori Hara said. “He’s a great hitter and I imagine he’s been under a lot of pressure. It was an important game for us and thanks to Ichiro we were able to get off to a good start.”

Daisuke Matsuzaka, the MVP of the 2006 WBC, picked up the win after holding South Korea to two runs and four hits over four innings.

At Tokyo, Ray Chang homered and drove in two runs to lead China to a 4-1 win over China.

China was to play Olympic champion South Korea on Sunday with the winner advancing to the second round of the WBC.

Taiwan, missing pitchers Wang Chien-ming and Kuo Hong-chih, was eliminated from the tournament.

At San Juan, Puerto Rico, Sidney Ponson held the Dominican lineup in check, and the Netherlands pulled off a huge 3-2 upset.

It was a startling loss for the heavily favored Dominicans, considered contenders to win the 16-team tournament. Now, they are one defeat from elimination in Group D.

At Toronto, Adam Dunn and Brian McCann each hit a two-run homer as the United States held off feisty Canada, 6-5, to avenge a surprising loss three years ago.

Kevin Youkilis added a solo shot and J.J. Putz closed it out in a nervous ninth inning for the US. (AP)