With no outs and two men on, as any baseball fan will tell you, the correct strategy is to lay down a sacrifice bunt. This will result in an out, but move the runners to second and third. Cuba pulled this off to perfection in the top of the 11th with the game tied 3-3, then a hard Michel Enriquez single scored two runs.

When the Americans came up in the bottom of the 11th, Jayson Nix, who homered in the eighth to tie the game, squared to bunt but Cuban pitcher Pedro Lazo pitched hard inside and the bunt attempt fouled off Nix's face, sending him to the hospital. The U.S. scratched out a single run, but the Cubans prevailed. American manager Davey Johnson was incensed.

"I don't think that's the way to defend the wheel," Johnson said. "Lazo's a great pitcher. I'm sure their game plan was to throw right at the guy's head. It bounced up and hit him in the eye. No game of baseball is worth that. ... I told my guys, 'they're going to do something crazy, and that was their crazy play.' In my wildest imagination I didn't think they'd throw right at my player's coconut."

SHOOTING: Matt Emmons is a guy folks might remember as "the guy who shot the wrong target" at Athens 2004 in the three positions competition (standing, kneeling and prone) when he squandered a huge lead by shooting at Target 3 from Lane 2. It was such a moment that people completely forgot that he won the prone-position gold at those Games. Now, he'll be forever remembered as "the guy who kept making out with his wife" at Beijing 2008. After taking silver in today's prone final, Emmons leapt into the press box to chew wife Katerina's face off. She won a gold and silver for the Czech Republic earlier this week, events which were punctuated with multiple smoochaludes.

Plans for Opening Ceremony were under tight wraps, and a South Korean broadcaster was banned from the stadia for leaking footage of a rehearsal. Nine days before the Closing, we have a full rundown of Great Britain's segment that will get the youth of the world ready for the next meeting. David Beckham, Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and Pop Idol Leona Lewis will be part of the short presentation.

Beckham will appear on the top of one of London's red double-decker buses and kick a football into the crowd when London gets a chance to tell the world what the next Games will be like ... One thing is certain. The London segment will be in stark contrast to the Chinese goodbye. It is also said to contain quite a lot of humour. London 2012 are not laughing, however, about the fact the world already knows what's coming.

In an absolute rarity, tomorrow's IOC press briefing has been cancelled. A BOCOG spokesperson said it was because the Games are going so smoothly, but four days of questions about Tibet, the Falun Gong, human rights and press freedom have clearly worn down poor IOC public relations head Giselle Davies. She was once again put on the defensive this morning by reporters asking about things that are happening outside the IOC's current zone of influence.

"We don't have criticism right now," Davies said. "I think if you are asking us to appraise areas outside sport, that's not our remit to do so. We're not qualified to do that. The world is invited here to make its own appraisal, and that is clearly what you will do. The world will look back after these games are finished and take their perspectives."

The New York Times has unleashed many widgets for these Games, but this one is perhaps the most fun. It's the up-to-date medal count in geographical perspective.