“We’re going through tough times as a country,” said Carlos Beltran, the designated hitter who has played in all four tournaments for Puerto Rico. “The fact that we’re uniting our people, everybody’s rooting for us and we’re playing such good baseball — hopefully we can finish this in a positive way.”

The same could be said for the tournament, which began in 2006 as an attempt by Major League Baseball to manufacture a World Cup-like event for the sport after it had been dropped from the Olympics. It is now played every four years.

Tournament attendance leading to the semifinals had increased by 24 percent, and Tuesday’s night semifinal drew a peak audience of 1.7 million on MLB Network, making it by far the network’s most watched nonplayoff game. Overall viewership for the W.B.C. is up by 21 percent over 2013.

More eye-catching, though, has been the atmosphere at the ballparks. Dominican fans took over Marlins Park in Miami, creating an earsplitting din that carried their team to a dramatic comeback win over the United States. Crowds in Seoul, Tokyo and Guadalajara, Mexico, were bouncing when the home team played. Even when ballparks have not been full, as in San Diego and Los Angeles, they have been full of life.

Japanese fans’ robust band, with its drums and horns, lent an air of “Friday Night Lights” to Dodger Stadium. And if Los Angeles fans are often impugned as fair-weathered, it is worth noting that virtually all of the 33,462 people who were there on Tuesday night sat through a persistent drizzle most of the game, with American fans making their presence felt with “U-S-A” chants.