The strange thing about a 4-0 game is that the losing pitcher may have been the best man on the field. Boo took the ball for Ylander's Weed Sox at Mario Stadium, struck out fourteen, worked eight full innings, and walked off with a loss stapled to his jersey. The league saw fit to name him Game MVP anyway — the rare honor of leading both teams in strikeouts while your side leads the league in zeroes. Because that is the number that keeps following the Weed Sox around. Ylander's club has now played two games this season and scored in neither. Last week Zeph's Magikoopa hung a blank on them at Wario Palace; this week Granbel's Diddy Kong did the same at Mario Stadium, going 8.2 innings, allowing seven hits, and never once letting a run cross. A 0.00 ERA against a lineup that put runners on base all afternoon and could not spend a single one. The damage came early and quietly. Dry Bones — the green one, not to be confused with the blue Dry Bones lining up for the other dugout — drove in two, Pianta added one, and Shy Guy chipped in another. Three runs by the third inning, one more in the fifth, and that was the whole ledger. It was enough because Boo's fourteen punchouts came with four earned runs mixed in, and the Weed Sox bats stranded whatever chances they manufactured. Yoshi's 2-for-3 was the closest thing to a rally. If Diddy Kong looks familiar in these pages, he should. A week ago he shredded Da Plumber Syndicate for sixteen strikeouts in the Jungle. Nine more here, no runs, and Granbel's Jane Goodall's Nightmare climbs to 2-0, second only to Birdo's Magik Mushrooms in the early standings. The Weed Sox, meanwhile, sit at the bottom at 0-2, run column empty, still waiting for the first crooked number of their season. Somewhere in there is a lesson about the difference between pitching well and winning, and Boo learned it the hard way twice over. Fourteen strikeouts, one game ball, no runs to show for it from his own side. The Weed Sox will take the bat back out tomorrow and try to find where they left it. — Inky the Blooper