updated 2:27 p.m. ET March 22, 2006

NEW YORK - Japan’s victory 10-6 over Cuba in the championship game of the World Baseball Classic drew a 1.8 rating, bumping up ESPN’s average rating for the 12 games it aired to 1.1.

The household audience for Monday’s final game of the inaugural international tournament was 1.6 million. On average, each game of the tournament was watched by 980,000 households.

The highest rated game of the tournament was the United States’ 2-1 loss to Mexico in the second round, which eliminated the U.S. That game got a 2.1 rating last Thursday night.

The ratings for the WBC on ESPN were nearly double what the network gets on average for a spring training game, said ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz on Tuesday.

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