Japan beat Korea, 5-3, in an electrifying 10-inning game Monday night in Los Angeles to defend its World Baseball Classic title.

The night belonged to the twos. With two on and two out and two strikes on him, Ichiro Suzuki smacked a two-run single to center and 22-year-old Yu Darvish–product of Iranian-Japanese parents– pitched a scoreless half inning to secure the victory.

As two Asian countries who clearly had been paying attention to their baseball drills stormed to the W.B.C. final, the American audience largely dwindled and whined, but if you missed Japan’s spectacular 5-3 extra-innings victory Monday night, you missed a classic championship game, played spectacularly. Appropriate excuses, however, include the fact that the game did not start until after 9:30 Eastern and lasted four hours.