He had but one inning to give for his country.

He thought he had one more to give. The game was headed into extra innings, the winning team advancing to the championship game of the World Baseball Classic, the losing team eliminated. Kenley Jansen had needed just nine pitches to complete his inning. He said he came off the mound and placed a call to Arizona immediately, to rouse the Dodgers’ brass from a spring training evening and ask if he could pitch one more inning, in front of his home fans, for his homeland.

“I tried, man,” Jansen said. “I was pumped up.”

He said he was denied. Two innings later, so were he and his Netherlands teammates. After 10 innings of traditional baseball, the international tiebreaker rule took effect,and Eddie Rosario delivered the sacrifice fly that gave Puerto Rico a 4-3 victory in 11 incredibly compelling innings at Dodger Stadium.


The Puerto Rican team exploded from its dugout and basically swallowed up Rosario on the field.

Rosario sent the Puerto Ricans into their second consecutive WBC title game. The United States and Japan play in the other semifinal Tuesday, with the winner facing Puerto Rico for the WBC championship Wednesday.

“Guys were pouring their hearts out,” Netherlands Manager Hensley Meulens said.

The pure joy of baseball was on display, the exuberance of Wladimir Balentien flicking his bat aside and pounding his chest after a home run, the hops on Francisco Lindor and Carlos Correa as they leaped skyward for mid-air high-fives, the triumphant bodily thrusts of Javier Baez as he