SAN DIEGO -- Tino Martinez, Scott Brosius and Derek Jeter please step aside. Kosuke Fukudome is now at the top of the Byung-Hyun Kim hit list.
Fukudome came off the bench with one out in the seventh inning and poled a two-run pinch-hit homer into the right-field seats at PETCO Park off Kim, the beleaguered Korean reliever. And suddenly, the Japanese are on their way to the World Baseball Classic finals and a matchup against Cuba for the inaugural championship on Monday at 9 p.m. ET. Fukudome didn\'t know much about how the former Yankees teammates helped win World Series games at Yankee Stadium in 2001 when they hit late-inning homers off Kim, who was then the closer for the Arizona Diamondbacks. But after a 45-minute rain delay halted play in the eighth inning of the semifinals nightcap, Fukudome\'s blast sent the Japanese on to a 6-0 victory. "I didn\'t have much confidence when I came to bat in that situation," said Fukudome, who was benched by manager Sadaharu Oh because he was batting .105 in the tournament with one homer and two RBIs. "I just wanted to hit the ball hard somewhere and give our team a big lift. I think I was successful in doing that." Japanese starter Koji Uehara kept the Koreans in check and allowed only three hits, while striking out eight and walking none in his seven innings of work to earn the crucial win. Uehara is one of Japan\'s most accomplished professional pitchers having won league championships for the Yomiuri Giants, the Rookie of the Year Award in 1999 and two Sawamura Awards, which is comparable to Major League Baseball\'s Cy Young. But Saturday night was probably his biggest game on the international stage. Uehara struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh inning after Fukudome\'s homer keyed a five-run top of the inning during which the Japanese sent 10 batters to the plate. Going into that inning, Korea had allowed only eight runs in the tournament. "I really wanted to shut them down in that inning," said Uehara, who like Fukudome, is a seven-year veteran of the Japanese leagues. "That strong will really worked. This was my first time pitching in PETCO Park. And I felt really good. I\'ve pitched around the world in many new and beautiful ballparks and somehow I\'ve always been successful in those first appearances." Coming into the game, the Koreans were 6-0 and the Japanese were the fortunate recipients of a gift trip to the semifinals courtesy of a 2-1 U.S. loss to Mexico in the final game of the second round this past Thursday night in Anaheim. Had the U.S. won, it would\'ve been the Americans against the Koreans, and the 4-3 Japanese would\'ve gone home. Instead, they got a chance to avenge two earlier losses in the tournament to the archrival Koreans, both taut one-run contests that weren\'t decided until the late innings. In Tokyo Dome on March 5, Korea scored twice in the top of the eighth to snap a 1-1 tie and held on to win, 3-2, to shock the Japanese and end the first round with a 3-0 record. Again, last Wednesday at Angel Stadium, the Koreans scored twice in the top of the eighth to break a scoreless tie and held on to win, 2-1, after Japan\'s Tsuyoshi Nishioka homered to open the bottom of the ninth. In that fashion, Korea ended a 3-0 second round. Defeating the Koreans, as much as moving on to the finals, was the team\'s focus, Oh said. To do so, Oh shuffled his lineup, putting Fukudome on the bench and dropping Ichiro Suzuki down from his accustomed leadoff spot to the third slot. Ichiro responded with three hits, one of them an RBI single in the big seventh, and stole two bases. "In tonight\'s game, our goal was to beat this Korean team that defeated us twice in this event," said Oh, the legendary Tokyo Giants hitter who leads all of organized baseball with 868 career home runs. "That was the mindset of our entire team." Saturday night was a pitcher\'s duel until Nobuhiko Matsunaka opened the seventh inning with a line double into the right-field corner off left-handed reliever Byung Doo Jun, who took the loss. Korean manager In Sik Kim, who manages much like St. Louis Cardinals skipper Tony La Russa, flipping pitchers in and out of situations, brought in Byung-Hyun Kim, his second of an eventual four hurlers in the inning. Byung-Hyun struck out Hitoshi Tamura, but Fukudome, batting for Toshiaki Imae, brought back shadows of the past. In Game 4 of the 2001 World Series, Tino Martinez hit a two-out, two-run homer, ninth-inning off Kim to tie the score and the Yankees won in the 10th inning on Jeter\'s shot off Kim. The next night, again with two out in the ninth and Kim pitching, Brosius hit a two-run homer to tie the score and the Yanks went on to win the game in 12 innings. Kim lasted four batters on Saturday night and took the loss. Oh said that Fukudome had been swinging better during Friday\'s off-day workout and in batting practice before the game, but that didn\'t change his mind about re-doing the lineup and putting Fukudome back in center field. "He hadn\'t been in top form lately," Oh said. "That\'s the reason I took him out of the lineup. But I had the confidence I could use him anytime during the game. In that inning, the Koreans put the side-armer Kim on the mound. I figured Fukudome would be a good hitter in that kind of situation. In fact, I didn\'t have any doubt about it." Oh\'s instincts were right on the mark. And now the Japanese are not only back from expected elimination, they have beaten Korea and are one step away from winning it all.', tagline: 'Barry M. Bloom is a national reporter for MLB.com.', summary: null, article_photo: { caption: 'Kosuke Fukudome flips his bat after his two-run homer in the seventh.', credit: 'Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images', path: '/images/2006/03/19/fFJ5BOX4.jpg' }, sub_headline: 'Take down archrival Koreans for trip to Classic finale', alt_headline: null, related_links: null, headline: 'Third time\'s the charm for Japan' }