US able to take advantage

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- What's an international event without a little controversy, a little intrigue, a little spice?

That's exactly what the opening game of the second round of the World Baseball Classic provided yesterday on a chilly day at Angels Stadium when a Japan runner was called out for leaving third base too soon while tagging up, costing his team a chance to take the lead in a 3-3 game in the eighth inning.

If second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka did depart before USA left fielder Randy Winn's catch of Akinori Iwamura's fly ball, it was almost undetectable on replay and certainly not blatant.

The US rallied in the ninth on Alex Rodriguez's single up the middle with the bases loaded, giving the US a 4-3 victory before 32,896 somewhat stunned yet ecstatic fans.

Legendary Japan manager Sadaharu Oh, considered the greatest player in the history of Japanese baseball, argued the tag-up ruling through an interpreter, but to no avail. Japanese players were so shocked by the call they delayed taking the field for the bottom of the inning while Oh was arguing with plate umpire Bob Davidson.

Second base ump Brian Knight first indicated the runner was safe when Buck Martinez and Team USA appealed the play. But Davidson overruled the call following a brief discussion with the other umpires.

''The wrong umpire made the initial call," Davidson said in a statement. ''That's the plate umpire's call. I had it lined up. It's my call, and I had him leaving early and called him out."

Said Oh, through an interpreter, ''It's just unimaginable that this could have happened, or this did happen, in the United States, where baseball is famous and popular. ''And it's a pity that [the safe call] was overruled."

Ichiro Suzuki, who led off the game with a home run against US starter Jake Peavy, one of those who didn't take the field immediately while Oh was debating the call, said through an interpreter, ''We couldn't disagree with what the manager was saying. And we weren't persuaded with the outcome. That's why we didn't [take the field]."

Davidson was the only umpire of the four with significant major league experience.

''It's a tag-up situation," he explained. ''With the bases loaded our mechanics are that it's the plate man who gets back and lines up the tag. Knight hustled over to third base, where he's supposed to be, but he doesn't have the tag-up call. That's the plate umpire's call."

Said Martinez, ''I was in the dugout and I saw the angle of the base runner. I had a pretty good angle of that. And at the moment I saw it happen, I thought he left early. That was the reaction of everyone and that's why we went out to talk to the umpire."

The US, which plays Korea tonight, learned from its 8-6 defeat to Canada in the first round that losing a game in a tournament of this type puts you in peril. It knew it needed to get going after falling behind, 3-0. After Ichiro's homer in the first, Peavy, who went five innings, allowed two more runs in the second before the US started chipping away on Chipper Jones's solo homer to center in the second off Koji Uehara.

Red-hot Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee, who won the National League batting title last season with a .335 average and contended for the Triple Crown until he slumped in September, stroked a homer in the sixth with Jones aboard to tie the score.

In the ninth, Vernon Wells reached on an infield single to short to start a US rally. Winn's sacrifice bunt attempt drew a bad throw to first base, and both runners were safe. After Derek Jeter was hit with a pitch, Ken Griffey struck out on a high 3-2 fastball by Kyuji Fujikawa.

Rodriguez then came through.