The all-time series between Cory and Sam has been back and forth, with neither ever managing more than two consecutive wins against the other. Sam had won the previous two meetings and Cory needed this one to get back into the playoff conversation and to pull back within a game of .500 in AOA West play.

The frustrating part for Sam is that this is the fourth time this season he's been a Top 5 scorer and lost his matchup. He has just one lucky win to offset that bad luck this season. Only Rich Blorstad is in a similar position with a 1-3 luck record.

Cory's 286 plate appearances this week is a new AOA record for a 7-day matchup, beating his season high by three and Evan Ash's previous record from Week 17 of the 2022 season by two. Cory also led the league in innings pitched, giving him a massive leg up in volume in both disciplines.

A big help was Cory's relief pitcher management this week. His team tallied 10 relief appearances, only four below the max. This total is tied for the second most in any matchup in AOA history, including the many 10-day matchups that have occured, only bested by his own 11 relief appearances from the 7-day matchup in Week 13 of the 2022 season. All four instances of a team totaling 10+ relief appearances in a single contest belong to Cory.

With the victory, Cory earned his 16th career Manny Ramirez Award, tied with Sam for the most in league history. Cory is 16-8 when he played in the game of the week while Sam falls to 16-10 in his own appearances.

Only Sean scored more points than Cory this week as he captured his third career Rickey Henderson Award, all of them coming this season.

Only Rich was more unlucky than Sam this week, as he lost for the third time this season as a Top 5 scorer. Only Sam, with a 1-4 luck record, is more unlucky than Rich this season.

Things were looking pretty good for Rich late in the week, but an incredible 18-point outing for Logan Gilbert and a huge offensive day with more than 24 points scored helped lift Sean to another victory and preserve his best record in the league.

A big help for Sean was his incredible week at the dish. His offense posted a .328 batting average, good for 19th out of 608 team weeks in league history (96th percentile). Meanwhile, his pitching staff's .680 WHIP is the third lowest in league history and is the only WHIP below .700 for any team which maxed out their pitching starts for a contest.

That batting efficiency, along with being tied for the most doubles and having the most triples in Week 11, allowed Sean to also lead the AOA in OPS despite tying Eric and Cory Frontin for the second fewest home runs. It also allowed him to overcome Rich leading the league in both home runs and RBI in Week 11.

This was a down week for Stephen, who finished with his lowest point total since Week 6. Fortunately for him, he was facing a manager on a six-game losing streak entering the week.

Evan's 143 plate appearances were the third fewest of the season and his 13 runs scored were not only the lowest of the season but tied for the fewest in any matchup in AOA history lasting at least seven days.

Cory continues to benefit from good matchup luck. This was his fourth lucky win of the season and he has yet to suffer a loss as a Top 5 scorer.

This week he got a matchup with Alex who finished last in both batting average and OPS, thanks in part to a league-low 2 home runs, better this season only than his Week 3 total of zero dingers. Perhaps a new team name is in order.

That poor offensive performance gave Cory the opening he needed to overcome a 7-point pitching deficit. Even though Alex used two fewer starting pitchers than Cory in Week 11, he led the league in ERA and FIP had a WHIP .507 better than Cory did for the week.

Only Andrew and Eric have claimed even one John Gochnaur Award as the lowest weekly scorer this season. Andrew has seven of them, but this week Eric took home his fourth of the year.

Eric had the game within reach, but a strong final day for Andrew, mixed with the end of a two-week streak of Eric maxing out his pitcher starts, allowed Andrew to earn his third victory of the season.