USA Not Happy With New Baseball Rules

Across the board, U.S. players seemed as disappointed that an important game was decided by a rule designed to speed games to a conclusion.

"They played well. We played well," said Tiffee, who doubled twice and is 6-for-12 as the U.S. has started 1-2 with a pair of one-run, last-inning losses. "The whole extra-inning thing I think is bogus, but that's the way this competition is. You've got to go out and play. They beat us today. Hats off to them."

"I'm not a big fan of it," Donald said. "I think that takes all the work out of it. Bascially, you get a base hit and you've got a good shot at winning the game. In a normal game you have a guy at first and you have to battle to get that guy home. But that's international baseball for you. Every game, every run, every pitch, there's so much riding on it."

"How things turned out, you're definitely not going to like it," Barden said. "They have to get the field ready for the next game and this game over with …. but it's not baseball. You should just play it out. It's not soccer where you go to kickoffs. No one plays like that. I don't know if they play like that in their (Cuban) leagues or Japan plays like that….Play a game like that and it's decided by one hit."

Johnson was on the record as disliking the extra-inning rule even before the tournament began.

"I have never been a proponent of the new rule but they're trying to quicken the games and that's what we have to live with," he said, following his postgame press conference. "I'm a dinosaur. I'm a baseball purist. I'm not really fond of putting guys on base, then trying to defend. They do things like that in football."

Via USA Today