At least this time, Rodney Luckwell must've thought, they still had the lead.

His afternoon on the mound had started much better than they usually did: one hit through the first three, one run through the first four, one walk through the fifth. He thought it strange that he had not been able to strike out a single batter, but when even the screaming lineout Lope Figueroa hit to the deepest part of center field had found its fielder, he figured it was a matter of time.

Instead, he'd proceeded to load the bases on a single to that same Figueroa and two walks to Gualberto López and pinch-hitter Raúl Escobedo, both on 3-1 sinkers they felt no need to chase. Hormigueros' centerfielder Avelino Giner, who entered the game slashing .067/.067/.067—one hit in 17 ABs—managed to lay off Luckwell's next attempt at a double-play ball, a 3-1 changeup, missed low. Giner had just drawn his second walk of the game, and this one had brought the Peregrinos within a run of tying the game.

Naguabo skipper Salcedo Díaz, already frustrated by the two free passes, stood up to get his pitcher. Joren Roos, the Great Panoptes of the Naguabo armbarn, would enter with the bases loaded. One pitch later, Hernández grounded out to first baseman Rob Feaster, who nearly ran aground as he threw home to prevent the tying run from scoring. Ben Pitchford, the perennial on-base threat sitting at the top of the Hormigueros order, grounded out on a 2-1 slider to second baseman Etaoin Shrdlu.

The Navegadores retained the lead. Another team might have been energized by the Peregrinos' failure to capitalize on loading the bases with one out—but the Navegadores have always been happy to provide their own headwind. Benji Valdez managed to run out a potential double-play ball, promptly stole second—his sixteenth swipe of the season—and scored home when Shrdlu's only hit of the game provolved past Raúl Escobedo, restoring Naguabo's two-run lead.

It was the last run either team scored. After bailing out his starter, Roos pitched his usual clean inning, working a strikeout of shortstop Atanasio Peña between two nearly identical groundouts to second.

For the eighth, Salcedo Díaz had two options to face the righty core of the Peregrinos lineup. Had the Naves taken a proper lead, he might have gone to Ham Underwood, but with the game still dancing on the edge, he took perhaps an even bigger gamble and called in Rodrigo Paz.

The Colombian fireballer had become something of an albatross after a disastrous outing in Juncos two weeks before, and things got tenser for the Naguabo benches when Hormigueros manager Antonio Soto decided to pinch-hit with two southpaws.

Paz, surely aware that he could sink his chances at a permanent roster spot with another blunderous outing, gathered himself—and proceeded to strike out Marcos Arias swinging on a low sinker and fly Gabriel Quinteros out to center field on the very next pitch, lowering his ERA from an indefensible 11.57 to a merely dire 9.53.

That, plus Héctor Varela's full-count strikeout of Peña to strand two runners, completed ten gutsy scoreless outs for Naguabo's deep bullpen to give Luckwell an improbable third win on the season.

"I believe in our guys. I like the energy they're playing with."
— Navegadores de Naguabo manager Herminio Salcedo Díaz

As Naguabo fans know well, that kind of lethal pitching was necessary because their offense, at the best of times, appears to mostly score runs via luck. Yes, four of the runs on Marcos Acosta's ledger were technically earned, but the way he pitched, it's shocking that this wasn't a shutout.

Acosta struck out nine Navegadores—including ringing up Feaster, Kalsakau and Stonehand twice apiece—and didn't give up a single walk, on top of stranding five runners in scoring position. If he'd had a capable arm behind the plate, he might have also worked his way out of trouble more often. Instead, the Navegadores once again bullied an opposing battery, stealing successfully on 7 of 8 attempted swipes. Noticeably, all four of the players to score runs (del Castillo, Feaster, Santiago and Valdez, twice) all stole at least one base during the game. Speed, as always, is what sets these Naves apart.

Frank del Castillo in particular had a night of it, taking Acosta to two full counts that both ended in outs (a strikeout in the first and a groundout two innings later), before punching a shallow centerfield single in the 5th that eventually allowed him to score, and a double down the left field line in the 9th to help keep a respectable batting line.

The Peregrinos of 1902 are led by the reigning Gerente Óptimo in Liga Betances, and they've got plenty of premium pitching talent between Acosta, Oxonian lefty Dane Grant, and former British league standout Alistair "Whiplash" Oakley. Their season is so far defined by abysmal defense, bad baserunning, and an underused bullpen—and if there are three areas where the 1902 Navegadores excel, it is exactly those three. They took advantage of all of them to secure the 5-3 win.

Naguabo heads into Game 21 with a run differential of a +3, the highest it's been since April 11th, and on an official 5-win streak. Next up: the Tiburones de Aguadilla, whose #1 and #2 pitchers are both sporting sub-1.00 ERAs over their last few games.

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