Olympic baseball, explained: How group play, knockout stage, standings work in 2021 tournament

Welcome back to "The Show."

Baseball is back on a global stage in 2021, the first time that baseball is in the Olympics since 2008, and it's going to be a doozy. 

This year, a six-team field faces off for the gold medal on the penultimate day of the 2021 Olympic games, with the United States, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Israel and the Dominican Republic sending their best ballplayers to Tokyo to prove dominance over the baseball world.

In all, 16 games will be played to decide who's going to go home to their respective country with a gold medal. It isn't a lock that it's going to be the United States, either: The US has a single gold medal in four appearances in the Olympic games. (They did, though, win the 2017 World Baseball Classic.)

Here's what you need to know about the 2021 Olympic baseball tourney:

Olympic baseball 2021 tournament

Olympic baseball this year works a bit different than it has in years past:

Qualifying

In all, six teams qualified for a chance at a gold medal this year:

— Japan qualified for being the host nation.

— Israel qualified as the winner of the Asia/Europe qualifying event in 2019.

— At the 2019 WBSC Premier12, South Korea and Mexico both qualified. 

— Earlier in 2021, the United States qualified in an Americas qualifying event.

— At the final qualifying event in 2021, the Dominican Republic earned an Olympic bid.

Tournament

The actual Olympic tournament is a little bit more complicated than its softball counterpart. Here's how it breaks down:

Group stage

The six teams will be divided into two groups: Group A (Japan, Mexico and the Dominican Republic) and Group B (the U.S., Israel and South Korea). Teams in their groups will play each others once, for six games total.

Knockout stage

In the first three games, the teams in opposing groups will play one another based on seeding from group play (A1 vs. B1, A2 vs. B2, A3 vs. B3). The loser of the A3 vs. B3 game is eliminated from the tournament.

Otherwise, teams play one another in a double-elimination tournament until there is one team left from the winners and losers bracket. Those two teams will play one another in the gold-medal game. The last two teams eliminated in the losers bracket will play in the bronze-medal game. There will be 10 total games played in the knockout stage (include bronze- and gold-medal games) for 16 games overall.

USA Olympic baseball roster

The 24-man roster is managed by former Los Angeles Angels manager Mike Scioscia:

Olympic baseball standings

Group A

Group B

Olympic baseball 2021 schedule

There are 16 games total in the Olympic baseball tournament. We don't know the knockout stage matchups yet, but we know when the games will be played:

Group stage

Knockout stage