The danger is nearly over for Team USA. By the toss of the dice, the Americans are still alive in the World Baseball Classic.
Most of the players, coaches and reporters alike were still trying to work out the confusing tournament tiebreaker rules for eliminating teams at the Classic that seem more in the line with doing long division.
"It would be meaningless if the U.S. team was eliminated so early from this tournament," said Japan manager Sadaharu Oh at a practice early on Thursday.
The all-time career home-run king made the comments just hours before Team USA found out it was still in the 16-nation tournament by virtue of Mexico's 9-1 victory over Canada.