U.S. Is Beaten by Cuba, 6-1 : Baseball: Winners will play Taiwan for gold medal. Americans will seek bronze.

The Americans played their best game of the Olympic baseball tournament against Cuba on Tuesday, and all they had to show for it were tears and another loss, knocking them out of gold medal contention.

Victor Mesa’s two-run homer broke open the game in the sixth and his two-run single put the finishing touches on a 6-1 victory that put Cuba (8-0) in the gold medal game Wednesday against Taiwan (6-2).

The United States came closer, but still came up short of a miracle.

“To beat Cuba, you’ve got to play perfect and get some breaks,” third baseman Phil Nevin of Cal State Fullerton said, fighting back tears. “We were near-perfect and we didn’t get the breaks.”

The combination added up to no silver or gold for the United States (5-3), which will play Japan (5-3) for the bronze.

The Americans once again proved the Cubans’ biggest challenge. Cuba’s 9-6 victory over the United States in their round-robin game Wednesday was its closest call of the tournament.

But the Cubans’ power turned the game around once again.

U.S. starter Rick Helling, who failed to hold a five-run lead in theteams’ round-robin game, failed to make good on his second chance as well. Orestes Kindelan hit a solo homer during the fourth, German Mesa had a sacrifice fly during the fifth, and Mesa’s two-out homer during the sixth sent the Cubans into an arm-waving, on-field celebration.

“I thought I’d never say it, but those guys are better than we are,” Helling said. “They’re unbelievable. I was close to perfect all night. I don’t know what I could have done any differently. I just made a couple of mistakes.

“I throw an about-perfect game and give up four runs. Unbelievable.”

While the Cubans’ hitting has been the talk of the tournament, their pitching has been quietly sensational.

Osvaldo Fernandez, Cuba’s top starter, gave up his first run of the tournament when Chad McConnell doubled during the top of the sixth to make the score 2-1. But Omar Ajete, who shut down the Americans for 8 1/3 innings in their first game, came on to strike out Nevin in the game’s pivotal at-bat and closed the game, giving up only two hits.

The atmosphere was more low-key than in the first game, when both teams made nervous errors and the cheering sections shouted each other down. The fans’ animosity spilled over into a shouting match outside the ballpark after that first game.

There were a few empty seats and the fans weren’t as loud Tuesday, but the baseball was much better.

“I think today’s game was better than the first,” Cuban coach Jorge Fuentes said. “It was more spectacular.”

A lot of that was due to Helling, a junior from Stanford who was the goat of the first game. This was a different Helling: calm, confident, in control.

But it came down to the same bottom line--he had to be perfect to have any chance of beating them. He missed by three pitches.

Kindelan, the Cubans’ clean-up hitter, pulled a hanging slider over the left-field wall for a 1-0 lead during the second. Helling had gone to a full count and had to throw a strike. It was a sloppy one.

Another mistake led to a near-homer and another run during the fifth. Ermidelio Urrutia lined a high pitch a foot from the top of the wall in left-center for a double. A sacrifice bunt by Alberto Hernandez and Mesa’s sacrifice fly to deep right field made the score 2-0.

Finally, Mesa’s opposite-field homer made the score 4-1 and brought the Cuban dugout onto the field for a celebration.

“It was not that bad of a pitch, but if you make a mistake, those guys beat you every time,” Helling said.

Mesa singled home two more runs during the eight against the beleaguered U.S. bullpen.

Fernandez shut them out for five innings, losing his tournament-long scoreless streak at 15 innings when McConnell doubled home a run with two out in the sixth.

Then Ajete, who also hasn’t given up an earned run during the tournament, got the key out of the game. With runners on second and third, he threw a 90 m.p.h. fastball past Nevin to end the inning.

The left-hander made quick work of the Americans the rest of the way, striking out five and giving up only two hits.