LOS ANGELES -- Puerto Rico will get one more chance to conquer the world as it heads back to the World Baseball Classic championship game.

Puerto Rico, the tournament’s runner-up four years ago, advanced to the title game again with a dramatic 4-3 victory in 11 innings over the Netherlands on Monday in a game that was decided on the tournament’s extra-inning rule.

Starting in the 11th inning, both teams are allowed a runner on first and second base to begin the inning. The Netherlands blew its chance after a sacrifice bunt and a double-play grounder by Curt Smith. Puerto Rico also tried a sacrifice bunt but won the game when Eddie Rosario followed with a sacrifice fly to center field, which scored Carlos Correa.

Puerto Rico will face the winner of Tuesday’s semifinal game between the United States and Japan.

In the 2013 tournament, Puerto Rico ran into the buzz saw that was a Dominican Republic team that ended up going 8-0 en route to the title. Now Puerto Rico can do the same thing if it takes Wednesday’s title game.

"The aspect that highlights this team compared to 2013 truly is the talent," Puerto Rico manager Edwin Rodriguez said. "We have a bank of talent that is wider than in 2013. There are more options. Not only the ones in the lineup, but also we have more options in our reserve players, and that is a huge difference."

The tone was set by Puerto Rico catcher Yadier Molina, who threw out two baserunners in the first inning. The Netherlands took an early 2-0 lead in the first on a home run from Wladimir Balentin, but Puerto Rico came back to tie it on a two-run home run by Correa.

"The first thing we want to do when we're so intense is just to calm down, take control of the emotions and have the abilities take care of the game. In my case, I didn't feel any pressure," Correa said. "I just stood at third base and waited. When I'm batting, I didn't feel any pressure. Simply, when I feel that I'm all excited, I tried to calm down, breathe deep, and concentrate on what we're doing. This is something that we rehearse every day. So we will be able to do it well at the end."

In front of a mostly pro-Puerto Rico crowd of 24,865, both bullpens put on a classic duel. Before the deciding 11th inning, neither team had scored since the fifth, when the Netherlands tied it 3-3.

Three key things to know:

1. Puerto Rico’s masked wrecking ball: The defense of St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina is no secret, yet it still seemed to catch the Netherlands off-guard Monday. Not only was Andrelton Simmons picked off second base by Molina, but also Jurickson Profar was thrown out by Molina when he wasn’t paying attention at first base following a base hit.

"For me, that was the game," Rodriguez said. "That first inning that Yadi Molina did what he did, for me, that was the game. Then again, Yadier Molina came to play."

It looked like the Netherlands was going to take the lead on a fifth-inning double by Shawn Zarraga, but Molina grabbed a quick relay throw from Javier Baez and tagged Jonathan Schoop out at the plate. The Netherlands never scored again.

Don’t blame the Netherlands players for not knowing what they were up against. Simmons, Profar and Schoop are all major leaguers and should have known better, yet Molina still managed to make his mark.

It has been an impressive tournament for Molina, who has been the heart and soul of an undefeated Puerto Rico team. He was MVP of Pool F, the grouping the team steamrollered to advance to Monday’s semifinal. Not only has Molina’s defense been plus, but also he batted .353 in the first six games, with two home runs and six RBIs.

2. Relieved to be in the final: Puerto Rico starter Jorge Lopez was shaky at the outset and was pulled after 2 2/3 innings, even though his team had the lead. It was the bullpen that saved the day, starting with left-hander Hector Santiago.

The Los Angeles Angels product backed Lopez with a solid 3 1/3 innings, giving up just one run while throwing 60 pitches. Fellow left-hander Alex Claudio later delivered 1 1/3 innings of scoreless baseball. Joseph Colon and Edwin Diaz also delivered scoreless outings for Puerto Rico, with more than an inning of work each.

Diaz was huge with a perfect 10th inning, then getting shutting down the Netherlands in the 11th even with two free runners aboard. He hopes his parent club, the Seattle Mariners, will clear him to pitch again in Wednesday’s title game.

"I am ready to throw on Wednesday," Diaz said. "I'm going to talk to my organization to see because it's the last game. And I think that I have a day of rest because we're off. So I'm going to try to talk to the organization and see if they give me the break, because they have worked with me fine, and I hope they say yes."

There was little margin for error for the Puerto Rico relievers. If the Netherlands took a late lead, the team had Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen looming in the bullpen. Jansen got his chance to pitch with a dominating 10th inning, but the game was only tied at the time.

3. Bashing Balentin: There is no telling where the Netherlands would have been without Balentin, but reaching the semifinals of the WBC would have been unlikely. He hit his fourth home run of the tournament in the first inning and showed off a pronounced bat flip to go with the blast.

He added a double off the top of the wall in the fifth inning and scored the run that tied the game 3-3. After a seventh-inning single, Balentin had delivered 16 hits for his club in seven games.

He also got into an on-field dispute with Puerto Rico reliever Diaz. That emptied both benches, but there was no further incident, and Diaz followed by striking out Balentin.

All that offensive firepower was of no surprise to Balentin's regular team, the Yakult Swallows of the Japan Central League. In fact, Balentin hit a Nippon Professional Baseball-record 60 home runs in 2013, breaking the previous mark of 55. He has hit 31 home runs in four other seasons with Yakult.

Balentin was once property of the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds before he moved to Japan. In 511 major league at-bats, he hit 15 home runs.