ANAHEIM, Calif. — Roger Clemens bid goodbye to baseball in uncharacteristic fashion — with a loss.

Oliver Perez and seven relievers combined to pitch a three-hitter, leading Mexico to a 2-1 victory over the Rocket and Team USA Thursday night, eliminating the Americans from the inaugural World Baseball Classic and putting Japan in the semifinals.

Clemens pitched reasonably well, but received little offensive support as a lineup loaded with All-Stars failed to get the job done. He has said he would retire when the Classic was over. The 43-year-old right-hander did nothing to discourage that notion after facing Mexico.

"For me, right now, it's goodbye," he said in a brief statement issued through Team USA. "I felt great tonight and my body responded well. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to participate in this event. It made all the work I did in the last six weeks worthwhile."

At least one of his United States teammates isn't so sure.

"I just feel it," Derek Jeter said with a smile when asked if he thought Clemens would return.

Clemens, who has won 341 games and struck out 4,502 batters in 22 big league seasons, wasn't at his best, allowing six hits and two runs in 4Qe innings with no walks and four strikeouts. He threw 73 pitches — seven below the maximum for the second round.

South Korea had a 3-0 second-round record in Group One, with Team USA, Japan and Mexico all going 1-2. Japan earned the second semifinal berth from the group by allowing the fewest runs in games between the tied teams.

Japan, which has already lost twice to South Korea in the Classic, faces its archrival in the nightcap of Saturday's day-night doubleheader in San Diego, with the Dominican Republic meeting Cuba in the opening semifinal game. The winners play Monday for the championship.

Meanwhile, Team USA members return to their major league teams to finish spring training expressing gratitude for this experience and sadness with the outcome.

"You know, there was a lot said about Team USA not really taking this seriously, but I can guarantee you there's a lot of guys hurting down in that clubhouse right now," manager Buck Martinez said.

Jake Peavy, who would have pitched in the semifinals, agreed, saying: "This is up there with anything that I've ever done. It's disheartening. There's a lot of emotional guys in the clubhouse. It's not easy to deal with."

Martinez said he thought Clemens threw the ball well, but was ready to come out of the game when the time came.

"Rocket looked at me and looked fatigued," Martinez said. "He says, 'What do you got out there?' That was a sign that he felt like I did. We probably had a better shot with a fresh arm out there."

Scot Shields entered with runners at first and third and one out, and Jorge Cantu's grounder drove in what proved to be the winning run.

Perez allowed only one hit in three scoreless innings, and the Mexican bullpen retired 12 straight batters until Chipper Jones drew a one-out walk off Jorge De. La Rosa in the ninth.

"We just never got in the groove with the bats," Team USA manager Buck Martinez said, noting his team scored only eight runs in three second-round games.

Luis Ayala walked Alex Rodriguez, but David Cortes needed only one pitch to get Vernon Wells to ground into a game-ending double play.

"We came here to win, and that is how we performed this evening," Mexico manager Paquin Estrada said through a translator.

Mexico took a 1-0 lead off Clemens in the third on a leadoff double by Mario Valenzuela and a two-out single by Cantu.

But it wasn't that simple.

A television replay showed Valenzuela's fly ball hit the right-field foul pole at least 10 feet off the ground and bounced back onto the field. However, first-base umpire Bob Davidson didn't see it that way, and Valenzuela wound up at second.

It was Davidson, umpiring behind the plate, who ruled that Japan's Tsuyoshi Nishioka left third base early in the eighth inning Sunday to negate a sacrifice fly that would have snapped a 3-3 tie in a game Team USA would win 4-3.

The Americans tied it in the fourth off Francisco Campos when Jones doubled, took third on a fly ball and scored on Wells' sacrifice fly, barely beating right fielder Valenzuela's throw to the plate.

Valenzuela opened the fifth with a single, took second on a sacrifice and third on a single by Alfredo Amezaga before Shields relieved and Cantu drove in the winning run.

"This was for Mexico, so everyone can know in our country — everyone can know what we're doing here so we can leave here with our heads held high," Cantu said. "I think there is talent in Mexico. There are already 22 of us in the major leagues. This is definitely the message that we have the talent."