by DD Liu and Anders Kaseorg, with art help from Lily Chen

Each picture should lead you to two words (whose lengths are given by the enumerations). The two words have an overlap of 3 to 5 letters. In order by photograph, they are:

• aisle + sledgehammer = aisledgehammer
• bloated + teddiursa = bloateddiursa
• cable + bleach = cableach
• catherinezetajones + nestle = catherinezetajonestle
• decree + creepers = decreepers
• echo + chocobo = echocobo
• metro + tropical = metropical
• necromancer + certificate = necromancertificate
• oblong + longboat = oblongboat
• peacock + cockerel = peacockerel
• pessimist + misty = pessimisty
• rearguard + guardrail = rearguardrail
• reflect + lecturer = reflecturer
• saturn + turner = saturner
• satyr + tyrannosaur = satyrannosaur
• telescope + opera = telescopera
• ural + ralphnader = uralphnader

The next step is to realize that these new words also have overlaps that form a loop -- or rather, near-overlaps. Each overlap has an extra letter in one of the words. These extra letters spell a phrase:

F   reFlecturer
A   reArguardrail
S   aiSledgehammer
T   meTropical
B   caBleAch
A   echocobo
L   obLongboat
L   bLoateddiurSa
S   uralphnader
C   deCreepeRs
R   pessimisty
A   sAtyrannosaur
T   saTurner
C   neCromancertificate
H   catHerinezetajonestle
E   tElescopeRa
R   peacockerel

Fastball = pitch and scratcher = itcher, so the answer is PITCHER.