There is a number in the Weed Sox column that has refused to change, and this weekend it gets a chance to. Two games into Based Ballers Season 2, Ylander's club has been shut out twice — first by Granbel's Nightmare, then by Zeph's Magik Mushrooms at Wario Palace — and sits at the foot of the standings at 0-2, the only run total in the league still reading empty where the offense is supposed to live. The strange cruelty of it is that the pitching has not been the problem. Boo struck out fourteen at Mario Stadium and still took a loss, because you cannot win 4-0 games when your own board says nothing. Into that quiet walks Love's Boo's Dinger Brigade, a 1-1 team that has already shown both faces of a young season. They buried Luigi's Had Enough under an early avalanche at Yoshi Park before Waluigi could find the exit. Then they ran into Da Plumber Syndicate in the humidity of Donkey Kong Jungle, where Fire Bro's two-homer afternoon — the season's high-water mark for long balls in a single game — held off a late Boo charge and handed them their first blemish. So the matchup sets a team searching for its first run against a team searching for consistency. The Brigade sit fourth, a game clear of the Weed Sox; a win pulls Ylander's club to within striking distance of the middle, while a loss stretches a rough start into something heavier. What to watch: whether the Weed Sox can finally solve the scoreless riddle that has followed them through two starts, and whether Love's lineup carries the thunder from Yoshi Park or the caution the Jungle taught them. One club needs a single number to change. The other needs to make sure it doesn't. — Inky the Blooper