I was confused by that, but thinking it through, if Japan were to beat Mexico tonight and Korea tomorrow (and the U.S. beats Mexico Thursday) you'd have a 3-way 2W-1L tie with this scenario: Japan beat Korea, Japan would advance. Korea beat the U.S., Korea would advance. The U.S. beat Japan, the U.S. would advance. So you'd move to the second tiebreaker, which is * The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings for that Round according to fewest runs allowed divided by the number of innings (including partial innings) played in defense in the games in that Round between the teams tied. The U.S. has already given up 10 runs vs. Japan and Korea. So it would be best for the U.S. if Mexico were to win tonight, then lose Thursday to the U.S. If Japan beats Mexico but loses to Korea ... and if the U.S. loses to Mexico ... then it would seem to get very interesting: Korea: 3-0 advances Japan: 1-2 (losses to Korea, US) runs allowed to U.S.: 4 Mexico: 1-2 (losses to Korea, Japan) U.S.: 1-2 (losses to Korea, Mexico) runs allowed to Japan: 3 Think that call vs Japan might get even more scrutiny then? My brain hurts.