The Japanese rolled in part because their relievers were impressive in following Matsuzaka. DeRosa had a two-run double off Takahiro Mahara to slice the deficit to two runs in the eighth. DeRosa scampered to third when the ball was misplayed in left field. But Mahara rebounded to strike out pinch-hitter Evan Longoria and retired second baseman Brian Roberts on a tapper back to the mound. Japan, still working hard, rebounded with three runs in the ninth.

Shane Victorino, a switch-hitter, was poised to pinch-hit in the eighth, but Manager Davey Johnson recalled him and used the right-handed-hitting Longoria against the right-handed Mahara. Johnson said he wanted Longoria in that spot because he is “an R.B.I. man.” A two-run homer would have tied the game. The strategy failed.

“It’s a decision he makes as a manager,” Victorino said. “There’s nothing that can be done. He probably had a gut feeling on something he wanted to do.”

That was not Johnson’s only debatable decision. Johnson selected Roy Oswalt to start ahead of Jake Peavy, and he stayed with Oswalt when he got into trouble in the fourth. With the United States ahead, 2-1, Oswalt fizzled quickly.

After Japan had two singles to begin the fourth, Kosuke Fukudome hit a ball between the first- and second-base hole. Roberts, who had opened the game with a homer, glided to his left, but did not field the ball cleanly. It bounced off his glove for an error, skipped into right field and enabled Japan to tie the score, 2-2.

Kenji Johjima’s sacrifice fly gave the Japanese a 3-2 lead, but Johnson did not have relievers warming up. Oswalt was laboring, and this was an elimination game. But Johnson did not manage as if it were the decisive game in a seven-game series, with the Americans a couple of hits away from being in a perilous position.

Japan produced those hits soon. Akinori Iwamura doubled, Munenori Kawaski had a run-scoring single and Hiroyuki Nakajima drilled a run-scoring double that dumped the Americans into a 5-2 ditch. Oswalt slumped on the mound. That is when Johnson replaced Oswalt, a call that clearly appeared to be too late.