Minor League Ball Gameday, Thursday, October 2

Good afternoon everyone. Yesterday, I predicted that the Giants would beat the Pirates 5-0 behind eight shutout innings from Madison Bumgarner. Instead, the Giants won 8-0 behind nine innings from Bumgarner, but that's close enough. Thus far I'm 1-0 on playoff predictions (I didn't do one for the AL Wild Card). We'll keep track of that.

For today, we have the Detroit Tigers and Max Scherzer going up against the Baltimore Orioles and Chris Tillman. I predict that the Tigers will win this one 8-6, with neither starter pitching especially well. Victor Martinez will hit a three-run homer; Nick Markakis will homer for the Orioles.

Tonight we have the Kansas City Royals and Jason Vargas up against the Los Angeles Angels and Jered Weaver. My logic says the Angels with this one, but we'll go with heart instead and recklessly predict that the Royals squeak out a 3-2 victory. Mike Trout hits a home run but otherwise this is a "little ball" affair.

What are your predictions?