LOSS SENDS U.S. INTO A LONG OFFSEASON.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

ANAHEIM - A shattered bat produced a never-a-doubt, double-play grounder, the ``U-S-A!'' chants gave way to the ``Me-xi-co!'' chants, and the longest off-season in baseball history began Thursday night.

It's three years before the World Baseball Classic is scheduled to be held again, a thousand off-days before the United States gets another chance to prove what it failed miserably to demonstrate this time, which is that the country that developed the sport is still the best at playing it.

Beaten 2-1 by Mexico at Angel Stadium in front of 38,284 raucous fans of both sides, Team USA will not be going to San Diego for the event's Final Four.

Instead, it will be trying to figure out why it didn't do as well as Korea, Japan, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

``There's no doubt this team shouldn't be out in the second round,'' pitcher Jake Peavy said quietly outside the clubhouse when it was, suddenly, over.

Clearly, the United States needs to do something different in 2009, when WBC promoters plan the second edition of what would thereafter be an every-four-years event.

I'm guessing that the mistake this time was not that the United States didn't have a Dodger on the roster.

The first thing Team USA has to do is spit out the sour-grape seeds.

A number of U.S. players fell back Thursday on cliches about how any baseball team can beat any other in one game.

``How many games did Nolan Ryan lose? How many games did Rocket lose?'' Ken Griffey Jr. said, the latter referring to Roger Clemens, the losing pitcher Thursday in what might have been his final competitive appearance. ``Anybody can lose one game.''

But the United States didn't lose one game.

Sure, it was Mexico that finished Team USA off in a game that went right to the finish, with Chipper Jones and Alex Rodriguez walking with one out in the top of the ninth and everybody in the ballpark on their feet before Vernon Wells hit a broken-bat bouncer to short off reliever David Cortes and Mexico turned two.

But three nights earlier, it had been undefeated Korea that put the United States in jeopardy with a 7-3 thumping.

And in Round One in Arizona, it had been Canada that sent presumptuous U.S. fans the first humbling message with a 8-6 victory.

So, not only are four other countries going on to Saturday's semifinals. Two countries that aren't good enough to go on were good enough to trip up the Americans.

That's the United States right now, just another .500 ball club (3-3), with a long time to think about it.

If players weren't giving it the anybody-can-beat-anybody routine, some were using the tournament's timing as an excuse.

``You're not going to find one guy in (the U.S. clubhouse) who felt like he was in midseason form,'' Michael Young said.

But since playing the WBC right after the World Series would present its own problems, there's only one other way for U.S. major-leaguers to be ready to give their best in March. We'll see in '09 whether they're willing to show up for some sort of pre-spring-training Team USA camp.

Besides, although the Asian teams have been active since January, the Mexican team in particular faced the same timing issues as the United States.

``That's not an excuse,'' Derek Jeter said.

Like the U.S. victory over Japan on Sunday, which turned on an umpire's bad call, this one had a controversial moment. Same umpire, Bob Davidson, ruled that Mexico's Mario Valenzuela's third-inning fly ball hit the short right-field wall, although replays showed it hit the foul pole for a home run. In a break for Davidson, Valenzuela was singled home from second anyway to make it 1-0.

The United States tied the score in the fourth when Wells' fly ball scored Jones, who had doubled against Oliver Perez and gone to third when Alex Rodriguez's drive was caught at the right-field wall by the leaping Valenzuela.

But Mexico immediately went back ahead when Valenzuela and Alfredo Amezaga singled and, as soon as the Angels' Scot Shields relieved Clemens, Jorge Cantu tapped an RBI grounder.

Against the last six of eight Mexico pitchers, 16 U.S. hitters failed to get a ball out of the infield.

Maybe the pressure of expectations and the rust of March were a strangling combination. Maybe Team USA needs more pre-WBC work next time. Maybe more major-league stars will be persuaded to join up next time.

Or maybe this wasn't such a freakish result.

``I think the event was a great success,'' Peavy said. ''I look forward to being part of it the next time.

``It's going to be a long three years.''

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Team USA third baseman Chipper Jones walks off the field as Team Mexico celebrates its World Baseball Classic win.

Chris Carlson/Associated Press