TOKYO — This game seemed as good as softball can get: The two best teams in the world, one the inventor of the game and the other the host of the Olympics, going pitch for pitch, nerve for nerve. Then it suddenly got better. Sometimes a sport produces a moment so unpredictable and so unrepeatable that it immediately squeezes all involvedparties into a frame on history’s shelf, and here it was.
The U.S. trailed Japan 2–0 in the bottom of the sixth at Yokohama Stadium. There was one out, and two runners on base, which seemed itself like a windfall for Team USA, because Japanese starter Yukiko Ueno had flummoxed the U.