BEIJING - The United States and Cuba are political adversaries and fierce baseball rivals, so the preliminary-round game between the teams had the feel of a gold-medal showdown. Cuba needed nearly four hours, 11 innings, and a new tiebreaker rule to shake off the Americans, 5-4.

Afterward, U.S. manager Davey Johnson accused Cuban relief pitcher Pedro Lazo of intentionally throwing at Jayson Nix's head when Nix was attempting to bunt in the bottom of the 11th inning. The ball fouled off Nix's eye, and he was taken to the hospital for treatment. Dr. William Kuprevich, chief medical officer of the U.S. Olympic Team, announced that Nix will not return to play during the Games.

"I lost my second baseman when the pitcher threw the ball at his head, and I don't see any place for that in baseball,'' Johnson said. "I respect the way Cuba plays baseball, but I don't like losing players or how that game ended. Lazo is a good pitcher, but he hit him in the eye. No game of baseball is worth that.''

Cuban manager Antonio Pacheco and Lazo vehemently denied the pitch was aimed at Nix's head.

"That is a lack of respect on the part of the U.S. manager to say that,'' Pacheco said. "The Cuban team is very professional. We respect the game and our opponents. We are incapable of doing that.''

Lazo, a 35-year-old going for his third Olympic gold, added: "I'm not the type of pitcher to do that because it's not the correct way to play the game. I did not hit him intentionally. It was an accident. The ball hit the bat first, and bounced onto his face. That's unfortunate, but I was just pitching to get him out.''

Friday's game had added significance because baseball was kicked out of the Olympics after these Games, so the Cubans and Americans could be meeting for the last time. Baseball will not be contested at the 2012 Olympics in London, and the International Olympic Committee will vote in October 2009 on whether to reinstate it for the 2016 menu.

The 6,600-seat Wukesong Baseball Field was packed. Fans tried to drown each other out with chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!'' and "Cu-ba! Cu-ba!''

In women's gymnastics, Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson won the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the all-around final Friday.

Only six tenths of a point separated Liukin and Johnson, who became the first American women to finish first and second in gymnastics' marquee individual event. Liukin joined Mary Lou Retton, who won in 1984, and Carly Patterson, who won in 2004, as the third American woman to win the Olympic all-around title.

Liukin capitalized on beautiful, nearly flawless routines on uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise to upset her teammate, who was defending world champion, and hold off China's Yang Yilin, who took the bronze medal.

At 5-3, Liukin was one of the tallest gymnasts in the competition. She towered over the 4-8 Johnson and the Chinese, who have denied reports that their gymnasts are underage. Her lithe, willowy movements impressed the judges, who rewarded her with the top score on uneven bars. She harkens back to a previous era in gymnastics, when elegance prevailed over acrobatics.

Johnson was clearly disappointed with her silver medal, two days after the U.S. team's mistakes had enabled China to win gold in the team competition. But she held back her tears and congratulated her friend.

"We came back to show that we are the strong team we said we were," Johnson said.

Liukin said she was inspired by the Olympic accomplishments of her father and coach, Valeri, who won two golds and two silvers for the Soviet Union at the 1988 Olympics. Liukin was born in Moscow and lives in Parker, Texas.

Elsewhere:

Proving once again that his only rival is history, Michael Phelps won his sixth gold medal in a sixth world record time.

In his second individual medley race of the Games, Phelps pulled away from both Hungarian Laszlo Cseh and teammate Ryan Lochte to touch the wall in 1:54.23 in the 200 IM, improving the world record he set in the U.S. trials in Omaha in July by 0.57 seconds.

Entering the Games, it was considered one of the toughest races for Phelps to win given when it was in the meet (his sixth event) and how close Lochte was to defeating him at the trials.

But Lochte, who finished third with a time of 1:56.53 (.01 seconds behind Cseh) was no competition this time for Phelps, who is on pace to break Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one Games.

Lochte, however, did manage a gold on this day, and his own world record.

The former University of Florida swimmer took back the 200-meter backstroke world record, one that he had shared with Peirsol during the trials to earn his first individual Olympic gold.

Lochte had beaten Peirsol in the 200 backstroke at the 2007 world championships in Melbourne, setting the world mark at 1:54.32. But Peirsol out-touched Lochte to the wall in the U.S. trials, tying Lochte for the record and entering the Games as the favorite to defend both his Athens backstroke golds.

But Lochte, who settled for bronze in the 400 individual medley and struck gold with the record-breaking 800 free relay team, reclaimed the record to start what many consider the most difficult double any swimmer was attempting at these Games.

Rebecca Soni helped the U.S. women recover from a mildly disappointing meet so far with a surprising gold in the 200 breaststroke.

Soni had already won silver in the 100 breast, which was one of the biggest upsets of the meet given that she only learned she was racing the event one week before the Games. That news came down after Jessica Hardy failed a dope test and couldn't compete.

Soni, who underwent an operation two years ago to correct an irregular heartbeat, set a world record in the 200, 2:20.22, holding off Australian Leisel Jones for almost the entire race. "I definitely thought I could (win gold)," Soni said. "It was a good place to be mentally, to think that I had a chance."

In the women's 100 free, American Natalie Coughlin notched her fifth medal of the Games, her third bronze with an American record time of 53.39. German Britta Steffen, a one-time world record holder in the event, edged out Australian Libby Tricket for gold in an Olympic record 53.12.

In other events:

— Cuba needed nearly four hours, 11 innings, and a new tiebreaker rule to shake off the Americans, 5-4. According to the new rtiebreak rule, if teams are tied after 10 innings, each team gets to put runners on first and second to start subsequent innings. Cuba sent Luis Navas to first, Hector Olivera to second, and that proved critical. Both runners scored on a Michel Enriquez line-drive single.

— Matt Emmons won the silver medal in the men's 50-meter prone rifle competition.

— The U.S. softball team hit an Olympic-record four home runs on the way to a 7-0 victory over Japan in five innings.

— The U.S. women's table tennis team won its first match of the bronze play-off round by defeating Romania 3-1. The U.S. women will return to action Saturday morning at 10 a.m., playing the loser of Friday's match between Korea and Singapore.

— In tennis, Venus and Serena Williams defeated Ayumi Morita and Ai Sugiyama of Japan 7-5, 6-2, completing a second-round match suspended the previous night at 1 a.m. due to rain.

— Natalie Golda scored three goals to spark the offense and give the U.S. women's water polo team a 12-7 victory over Russia in Group A competition.

— U.S. shooter Jason Turner was awarded a bronze medal in the 10-meter air pistol after Kim Jong Su from North Korea was disqualified for a positive drug test. Turner was fourth in the competition before Kim's doping positive.

— James Blake lost to Chile's Fernando Gonzalez, the tennis singles bronze medal winner and gold medalist in doubles at Athens in 2004, in the men's singles semifinals 4-6, 7-5, 11-9. Blake now will face either Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic for the bronze medal Saturday.

— In the continuation of a game suspended Thursday afternoon due to weather, the U.S. softball team defeated Canada, 8-1.