It seems pretty apt that one of our league's least lucky managers this year would be facing one of our luckiest managers with a playoff spot on the line in the penultimate week of the regular season.

Sam took fate into his own hands and took care of business, putting together a strong comeback on Saturday and then holding off a solid Sunday performance by his opponent and clinching a playoff spot in the process.

This was the 27th time in league history the highest scoring manager also won the game of the week and for the second straight time, it is Sam who has accomplished the feat.

In doing so, Sam earned his 13th career Rickey Henderson Award, passing Eric Meyer for third most in history, and his 18th career Manny Ramirez Award, pulling back within one of the AOA's all-time leader, Cory Puffett.

Sam is now 18-11 in his career when playing in the game of the week. Cory Frontin drops to 7-9 in his appearances.

With the unlucky loss, Cory is now just the third luckiest manager in the AOA this year, only slightly less lucky than Stephen April who is second on that list.

Cory's top scorer: Corbin Burnes, 21.75 points (2 starts)
Sam's top scorer: Aaron Judge, 21.50 points (6 games)

With the AOA East already locked up, Stephen is just playing for seeding at this point and he drew a step closer to clinching the #1 spot in the playoffs as he approached the end of his first season in the AOA.

After being quite hesitant to join the league in the first place back in the spring, he's certainly left his mark in Year 1. A win in Week 18 will not only give him that top seed, but will also earn him the best regular season win percentage in AOA history, ahead of the five 15-5 seasons we've seen to this point.

This week Stephen was bouyed by his hitters, who gave him more than 95 points in a week when his pitchers performed very poorly, giving him just 38 points across six starts and five relief appearances.

Stephen's top scorer: Jose Ramirez, 20.25 points (6 games)
Evan's top scorer: Manny Machado, 16.25 points (5 games) & Anthony Santander, 16.25 points (8 games)

After entering the season 3-3 against one another, Alex swept the season series in the first year they've shared a division.

Alex's advantage this week was entirely from his offense. The two got nearly identical production from their pitching as Eric's pitchers were less effective but had more volume, allowing him to finish the week with only a one-point deficit in the discipline.

Alex's hitters, though, took care of the rest. Though Eric had slightly better power metrics this week, Alex had an additional 34 plate appearances and was one of two managers to have his team hit over .300 for the week.

Next week, Alex will face Andrew Perez with a chance to earn the first .500 season of his career, just a year after finishing half a game shy of that mark.

Eric's top scorer: Vinnie Pasquantino, 17.00 points (7 games)
Alex's top scorer: Jazz Chisholm Jr, 15.50 points (6 games)

After going 14 weeks without ever having back-to-back weeks with 10 or more home runs, Cory has three in a row (granted his 12 in Week 16 were likely the result of the week being extended by three days).

Cory started the season an abysmal 2-5, but in similar fashion to his 2022 campaign when he started 5-5, he's rattled off 10 wins in a row and has given himself an opportunity to finish his season off the same way he did two years ago when he captured his second straight Scully Cup.

He's clinched the AOA West and the #1 seed is still in play for him, but no matter what happens he'll have his work cut out for him with three tough opponents joining him in the playoff field.

He's gone 5-0 against those three other playoff teams over this stretch, but all three remain at least 100 points ahead of him in total scoring for the season and at least 13 all-play wins ahead of him as well.

In fact, just over Cory's 10-game win streak, all three have outscored him by a minimum of 6.75 points and only Sean Kennedy has fewer all-play wins during that stretch with a 2-win deficit.

Sean's top scorer: Bobby Witt Jr, 18.25 points (7 games)
Sam's top scorer: Paul Skenes, 14.50 points (2 starts)

Rich joined his fellow first-year manager in finishing off a season sweep this week. It looked like it could be quite interesting for a while, thanks to poor pitching efficiency and the worst power numbers offensively in the AOA this week.

While his midseason struggles, in particular his 1-6 stretch from Week 7 to Week 13, will keep him out of the playoffs this year, Rich has secured at least a .500 season in his first year in the AOA and will have a chance for bragging rights when he faces Cory Puffett this week with a chance to win the rubber match of their season series and earn a 10-win season, to boot!

Rich's top scorer: Justin Steele, 15.00 points (2 starts)
Andrew's top scorer: Juan Soto, 16.00 points (6 games)