LOS ANGELES — The World Baseball Classic belongs to Japan.

Again.

Seattle Mariners star Ichiro Suzuki hit a two-out, two-run single in the top of the 10th, and Japan beat reigning Olympic champion South Korea, 5-3, last night to win its second straight WBC title before a boisterous crowd of 54,846 at Dodger Stadium.

The Japanese won the inaugural tournament three years ago, beating Cuba 10-6 in the finals at Petco Park in San Diego.

South Korea had tied the game at 3 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth on Lee Bum-ho's run-scoring single off Japanese closer Yu Darvish (2-1), who got in trouble by issuing one-out walks to Kim Hyun-soo and Kim Tae-kyun.

Darvish struck out Choo Shin-soo before Lee lined a 1-1 pitch into left field, with pinch runner Lee Jong-wook scoring easily from second.

Seiichi Uchikawa opened the 10th with a single, was sacrificed to second and took third on a single by Akinori Iwamura. After pinch-hitter Munenori Kawasaki popped out, Iwamura took second on defensive interference.

Suzuki managed to foul off a pitch after it had bounced then lined the eighth pitch of the at-bat from Lim Chang-yong (1-1) to center for his fourth hit.

Given the lead, Darvish worked around a leadoff walk in the 10th.

Japan's Daisuke Matsuzaka won the MVP award for the second straight time after going 3-0 — the same record he had in the inaugural Classic.