- 32 minutes ago
Zinno starts by discussing the Braves Wild Card series win over the Phillies Thursday night and how the decision to start Ray Kerr paid off. He also previews their series against the Dodgers.
Zinno also discusses the Falcons Monday Night Football matchup with the Saints in New Orleans and how it could be one of the biggest moments in Michael Penix’s career. If he can pull off a win in one of the toughest environments, it will be a signature moment for him as the Falcons franchise quarterback.
Zinno also discusses the Falcons Monday Night Football matchup with the Saints in New Orleans and how it could be one of the biggest moments in Michael Penix’s career. If he can pull off a win in one of the toughest environments, it will be a signature moment for him as the Falcons franchise quarterback.
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00:01Good morning. Welcome to A to Z here on Sports Radio 92.9thegame, 92.9thegame.com,
00:06where today I tell you, sometimes a little validation is all you need.
00:10Welcome in. We waited until Friday to get this show up because the Braves had a playoff game last night
00:14that we're going to recap with you guys as well.
00:16We have the Falcons and Saints coming up. We've got a lot to do here on A to Z.
00:20But first, please make sure you hit that subscribe button so you're alerted every single time
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00:37We've got a lot to get to here. And plus, the one way the Falcons can take advantage of New
00:41Orleans Saints,
00:42that's coming up and a whole lot more. Stay here for more A to Z.
00:45My calculations are correct. When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you're going to see some serious...
00:55It's time for A to Z with Mark Zeno.
00:59It's elite sports knowledge.
01:01I am the smartest man alive!
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01:17When Atlanta talks sports, there's only one place to turn.
01:22You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.
01:27A to Z starts now.
01:34All right. Welcome back in.
01:36Braves take the wildcard series against the Philadelphia Phillies with a 6-2 win last night.
01:44And, you know, it's interesting because you go through 162 games and you get to this sort of janky, weird
01:51wildcard series
01:52where it's three games and it could be the end of your season in the blink of an eye.
01:57And Braves take the first one in dramatic fashion, obviously, in a game that they probably could have lost, should
02:02have lost.
02:03Nonetheless, Phillies come back and win game 2-10.
02:06And you're happy to be in an elimination game.
02:08And what happened?
02:09Well, the Braves end up taking it rather handily.
02:13But a lot of questions about how they were going to handle the starting rotation
02:17and what they were going to do in this closeout game and who was going to be available and who
02:21wasn't.
02:22Well, the point simply is, is that when the Braves made the decision, okay, to give the ball to Ray
02:30Kerr,
02:32there were a lot of people who were kind of going, what?
02:35Who? What? Why? How?
02:37I mean, we're not going with Holmes.
02:39We're not going with Martin Perez.
02:41You know, what's going on here?
02:43And even if you weren't thinking that, you had to at least have a little bit of trepidation about Ray
02:49Kerr going in.
02:50Well, you know, analytics be damned, but all the numbers told you that Ray Kerr should be very successful against
02:59the Phillies.
02:59And he was.
03:00He was very successful.
03:02I mean, overly successful.
03:04To the point where he went three and a third, allowed just two base runners, one hit and one walk.
03:09Only struck out two, but basically shut the Phillies lineup down, particularly the top part of the lineup of Turner
03:17Schwarber and Harper and Baum that, you know, really were what he needed to get through more than anything.
03:25Right.
03:26You weren't worried about the bottom of that lineup.
03:28You weren't worried about De La Cruz or Sosa or Rio Muto.
03:31You were worried about the top four guys beating you.
03:34And that's who you didn't want to beat you.
03:36And Walt Weiss pushed exactly the right button.
03:40And it's one of those few times in baseball where, hey, 162 games sort of validated what we believed and
03:49what we thought.
03:49Because so often, so many times you go to those situations in baseball and they just, you know, they don't
03:58work out in your favor.
03:59Well, you play to the numbers and it just doesn't work out.
04:03And this is a guy here for Atlanta who made his first appearance for the Braves in August and didn't
04:13think he was going to be here.
04:14I read somewhere he was working at a 7-11 when he got the call.
04:18You know, kind of crazy.
04:20Kind of crazy to believe that he went from that to starting an elimination game in the postseason and obviously
04:26not getting the win, but shutting down one of the best lineups in baseball for three and a third innings.
04:32And oh, by the way, he made two other previous appearances against the Phillies.
04:35Remember this.
04:36This is not news to anybody, but it was six and a third, just two hits and no runs.
04:42I mean, you kind of went with what worked and it stayed working for you.
04:47And that's important because, again, validation of your entire season matters.
04:52And you get past this point not to say, hey, we just played 162 to get absolutely nowhere.
04:58What a waste of time that was.
04:59What a waste of energy that was.
05:00No, that's not the case at all.
05:02The case is that you live to play for another series.
05:05And now they go on to face the Dodgers who they took five or six of, you know, earlier in
05:09the year.
05:12And it was something that, you know, has been brewing in the works for a long time.
05:20Like, I believe, you know, the Braves can actually beat the Dodgers.
05:23And I think a lot of people will be rooting for the Braves to beat the Dodgers.
05:27I think a lot of people are hoping that that's what happens.
05:31So I am very much a guy who thinks the Braves have every chance to win this series.
05:36And the way it's going to set up, you know, from them from a rotation standpoint can be fairly favorable.
05:43Clearly, the Dodgers are going to have the advantage.
05:44No one's saying that they won't.
05:47And officially, neither team has tabbed a starter at this point in time for the game.
05:54But you have to believe, even with Sale pitching last night, at a minimum, he's pitching game three back in
06:04Atlanta.
06:05Right?
06:06Like, that's probably what we're looking at here.
06:07Because game one will be Saturday.
06:10Game two will be Sunday.
06:12And then they'll have an off day on Monday.
06:15And they go back to work on Tuesday.
06:18And so if we get that from last night, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, that's four full days off from Thursday
06:24night.
06:25And it might even be sooner than that.
06:26I don't know if they'd rush him into Sunday.
06:28They'll probably bring Sale back on Monday, you would have to assume.
06:32But, you know, the opportunity, I mean, Molly will have a chance probably to pitch on Sunday before then.
06:38And you get him back in the fold.
06:41But this is the playoffs here.
06:43And the Braves are going to have to do this in this series with the bats.
06:45They're going to have to be able to get to Dodger pitching.
06:48And I think that they're well-equipped to do so.
06:50Whoever starts game one, even if they go with a bullpen game, still feel pretty confident about it.
06:55Genuinely do.
06:58I mean, the Braves hit statistically one of the best bullpens in baseball this year for a reason.
07:01Because they were really good.
07:03And you kind of, if the validation you got from doing a bullpen game against the Phillies works,
07:09you can run it back against the Dodgers and you can't get mad.
07:11I mean, I understand that, you know, dancing with the devil twice is a little bit scary.
07:18But for the most part, play to your strengths here.
07:22And that's what the Braves have done.
07:23And I think that's something that's absolutely worthwhile for them.
07:28All right.
07:28So congrats to the Braves.
07:30And let's keep this playoff thing going.
07:32And full disclosure, by the way, I have a ticket on the Braves to win a World Series at 15
07:36-1.
07:38I love the number as far as the odds were concerned.
07:42And the fact that they were getting the Dodgers in a short series, to me, felt a little bit more
07:46opportunistic
07:47because of baseball's stupid playoff format and the fact that they don't recede anything.
07:52So I genuinely believe that they have a real realistic chance to beat the Dodgers.
07:58And if they get past the Dodgers, I don't, between the Brewers and the Padres,
08:03I don't really have any concerns, to be perfectly honest with you.
08:05So I genuinely don't.
08:08And at this point, we might be angling towards the Braves-Yankees World Series,
08:10which would be awesome because I might be able to take my kids to a World Series game.
08:15But after that, yeah, I don't know.
08:19That's what I think we could be trending to.
08:21But the DS series is always weird.
08:23It's always wonky.
08:24This is where teams get tripped up.
08:26So we'll see how it shakes out.
08:28But to this point, go Braves.
08:30All right.
08:30Before we get to the Falcons and their game on Monday night with the Saints,
08:34it's time for a shovel of wisdom.
08:37Brace yourselves because it's time for the shovel of wisdom.
08:50All right.
08:51Today, my shovel goes to the WNBA.
08:55Oh, man.
08:57This is a league that just cannot get out of their own way.
09:00I mean, cannot get out of their own way.
09:05If you've been following the WNBA playoffs, many of you haven't,
09:09between the Aces and the Fever.
09:10And by the way, the Aces won game three last night,
09:12and they move on to the semifinals.
09:14And the Fever and Kaitlin Clark get snubbed once again.
09:17But a big, important step for them as a team getting to where they were.
09:22That said, you go back to game two,
09:25and if you have been under a rock for the past couple days,
09:27there was a pointing incident with a fan and Asia Wilson.
09:32And she went into the stands of the game to confront the fan on it.
09:39And, you know, it became this whole huge deal on social media for all the wrong reasons.
09:48And it continually happens for the wrong reasons because the WNBA and the leadership of the WNBA are absolutely jokes
09:56when it comes to enforcing rules and sticking to what, doing the right thing and sticking to what they're supposed
10:07to do.
10:08The problem here is this, and again, I'm not suggesting by any stretch of the imagination
10:16that even the NBA would have suspended a player in an elimination game for doing what they did.
10:21The problem is, is that this is another instance of the WNBA not enforcing their own rules.
10:30It is clear in the WNBA rulebook that if you enter the stands, it is an ejection, okay,
10:38and a likely suspension for follow-on for the next game, right?
10:42That is in the, at a minimum, the ejection from the game is in the rulebook.
10:46She was not ejected from the game for doing so.
10:48The WNBA came out and basically made up a rule saying she didn't go into the stands.
10:56And she was in a player escape path or escape lane, which is a term that is nowhere in the
11:02WNBA rulebook.
11:04This is the problem.
11:05Again, it's not that they're making an exception to the rule for a star player.
11:08That's not.
11:09The issue is that they continually do not enforce their own rules.
11:14And it's a bad reflection on the league.
11:16The officiating is bad enough.
11:18To double down with the leadership of the league to not enforce the rules that they have written down is
11:24an awful look.
11:25It's an awful look.
11:26It makes the product unwatchable at times.
11:28And you wonder why continually people are creating narratives off the court about the league instead of focusing on the
11:34on-the-court stuff.
11:34Because the on-the-court stuff is a joke sometimes with the way it's being adjudicated.
11:39I never thought you guys would expect me to spend this much time in the WNBA, but it needs to
11:43be said because this is not a team, not a league rather, that you can take seriously.
11:50You just can't.
11:51That's the reality of it.
11:52And they do it to themselves, and it's a real problem.
11:57And for their sake, I hope they get it fixed because the games are good.
12:00The games are entertaining.
12:01These are some of the best athletes in the world.
12:03And it's really quality basketball.
12:07And I'd love for everybody to be able to enjoy it, but, well, that's usually not going to happen, not
12:12the way the WNBA runs things.
12:15So more on that.
12:16Anyway, congratulations to the Aces and Asia Wilson and everything else, but beyond that.
12:20All right, let's get to the Atlanta Falcons here as they head down to New Orleans for Monday Night Football.
12:25I don't need to tell anybody the monumental task that's in front of them in reference to this Katrina game
12:30and what the environment's going to be like and how hard it's going to be to overcome.
12:35But this is one of these seminal moments for Michael Pennix.
12:42If Michael Pennix can take the Falcons down to New Orleans and win this game on this anniversary in this
12:49moment,
12:52it's a huge, huge sign that things are going in the right direction.
12:56Remember I kept telling you guys for weeks now about the overarch of the season and finding out if Michael
13:01Pennix is your guy?
13:04This is a step, a huge step to finding that out.
13:09If they pull this off and Michael Pennix gets a victory in New Orleans,
13:15that is the very beginning of Michael Pennix's long-term future here in Atlanta.
13:22You have to believe that there is so much stacked against Michael Pennix and the Falcons in this game.
13:29Look, objectively, I think the Falcons are actually the better team and the metrics back that up.
13:35This is a team that's top five in offensive line play this year.
13:38They're top 10 in pass rush rate and pressure rate, right?
13:42With basically nobody's on defense.
13:45They have one of the best running attacks in all of football going up against a really bad Saints run
13:49defense.
13:50Like all the advantages in this game are to the Falcons.
13:55Slight advantage in explosives and EPA per play on offense to New Orleans.
14:01They have more data points for three weeks than we deal with the Falcons with Michael Pennix.
14:05But beyond that, that may be the one spot where they can exploit the Falcons as in the secondary.
14:09But all things considered, the Falcons are the better team here.
14:14But going on the road against your rival down in New Orleans on the 20th anniversary of the Katrina game
14:21is a huge mountain to climb.
14:25And if Michael Pennix can pull it off, it is a huge win for him.
14:32And it is the first step in the first day of a long-term career for Michael Pennix and the
14:39Falcons.
14:39And people will look back on this game as the day that Michael Pennix arrived in Atlanta.
14:45This will be the day that Michael Pennix grabs this job and grabs this franchise quarterback role and holds on
14:53to it.
14:54If he can go down there and do it and pull it off.
14:57And I'm talking about, and it has to be one of these games where Pennix is the star of the
15:04show.
15:05Similar to what we saw on Thursday night.
15:08Granted, it was a lot of Bajon, but Pennix playing the way he did, especially going, I think, like, what,
15:1417 to 20 down the stretch in that game after a one for five start, whatever it was.
15:21Because he's got to be the star.
15:22It can't just be the defense had two touchdowns.
15:24It can't just be hand the ball off to Bajon 35 times.
15:27He's got to play like the franchise quarterback that you want him to be.
15:31He's got to be there in big moments.
15:32He's got to make big plays.
15:34He's got to own this moment.
15:36And if he does, this is the kind of moment that Michael Pennix, people will remember him for.
15:45It'll be the first day that people really start to associate Michael Pennix as a franchise quarterback for the Falcons.
15:53Primetime, national stage, all eyes on you, coming out party for Pennix, all of that is here.
15:59All of it is.
16:01And he's got to be the guy to do it.
16:03It is a big task.
16:05It is a monumental task to go down there, particularly after the Saints gifted a win away to the Raiders
16:12last week.
16:13The Saints did something in the fourth quarter last week that had only been done two other times since the
16:17NFL merger.
16:18That's turned the ball over on four consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter.
16:23It's really hard to do.
16:25In a game they probably should have won.
16:27Now, this is the same Saints team that went into Baltimore and beat the Ravens, but they give all that
16:31goodwill back by dumping a game to the Raiders this week, or last week, rather.
16:35But that shouldn't underscore how big this is going to be.
16:40It's going to be huge.
16:42Michael Pennix has never faced the Saints.
16:44He's been in the building for the game, but he's never played in that dome.
16:48Well, the last time he played a dome, he was in college.
16:50He's never played an NFL game in that dome.
16:53So, I mean, this is all very much a lot for this young man.
16:59But this could be and should be a Michael Pennix coming out party.
17:05And if he pulls it off, it'll be a night that many of us don't ever forget when it comes
17:12to Atlanta Falcons football.
17:15All right, do me a favor again.
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