ANAHEIM, Calif. — Team USA got the benefit of a questionable call. Alex Rodriguez made it pay off.

Rodriguez hit a bases-loaded, two-out single in the ninth to give the United States a 4-3 victory over Japan on Sunday in the opener of Round 2 in the inaugural World Baseball Classic.

With the score tied 3-3, Japan appeared to score the go-ahead run against Joe Nathan in the eighth when Akinori Iwamura flied to left with one out and the bases loaded. Tsuyoshi Nishioka beat Randy Winn's throw home, and second base umpire Brian Knight ruled him safe when Team USA appealed the play. But plate umpire Bob Davidson overruled the call following a brief discussion with the other umpires.

"The wrong umpire made the initial call," Davidson said in a statement issued afterward. "That's the plate umpire's call. I had it lined up. It's my call, and I had him leaving early and called him out."

Davidson is one of 22 major league umpires who lost their jobs in the 1999 labor dispute. He's now a minor league ump who fills in at the big-league level.