The talk around baseball has been that the Toronto Blue Jays do not have a chance to compete in the American League East, especially if highly paid centerfielder Vernon Wells continues his trend of subpar seasons. Well 2010 is a new year and Wells became the first player in Blue Jays history to homer in Toronto’s first three games (he has four homeruns total and his homerun Thursday tied the game in the ninth inning). Wells is 6-for-10 in three games with six runs scored and seven RBIs. Not a surprise that the Blue Jays won 2 out of 3 in Texas.

Tyler Colvin rounds third after hitting first homerun

It took the third game of the season for the Chicago Cubs to record their first victory, a 2-0 win at Atlanta. The Cubs have struggled so far to put everything together. The Cubs had solo homeruns from Marlon Byrd and rookie Tyler Colvin (his first Major League homer), though they only had four hits in the game. They got dominant pitching from Randy Wells in a matchup of two of last year’s best rookie pitchers (Tommy Hanson pitched for the Braves). Wells went six innings allowing six hits.

In Tampa, it was a scary moment for the Rays as starter Jeff Niemann was hit in the shoulder with a ball off the bat of Baltimore’s Miguel Tejada in the second inning of a game he seemed to be cruising through. He is day-to-day with a shoulder contusion. The Rays loaded the bases in the bottom of the ninth down 5-4 against O’s closer Mike Gonzalez, but Ben Zobrist flied out to right to end the game. The O’s avoided the three-game sweep to win their first game.

The Cleveland Indians won their second straight game by the score of 5-3 over the Chicago White Sox. This one took 11 innings to finish through the cold (the game began at 38 degrees) and a hail storm (in which the game was not delayed). With the game tied at 3-3, the Indians got to reliever JJ Putz. Second baseman Luis Valbuena led off with a bunt single but with two outs he was only standing on second base. Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera then blooped an RBI single to right field and Grady Sizemore (who went 3-for-6) drove an RBI double to right to give closer Chris Perez some insurance. Sizemore has five RBIs in his last two games and Perez has saved the Indians two wins.

Jonny Gomes hits a walk-off homerun

In Cincinnati, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Reds received stellar starting pitching from Brad Penny and Bronson Arroyo (who pitched through pain as he took a line drive off his calf from Colby Rasmus). The game headed to the bottom of the ninth tied at 1-1 until the Reds Jonny Gomes deposited a one-out fastball from Jason Motte into the seats to give the Reds their first win and send the fans home happy.

The Detroit Tigers again battered the KC Royals bullpen scoring three runs a piece in the eighth and ninth innings to give the Tigers a 7-3 win. After the Tigers Dontrelle Willis and the Royals Brian Bannister were involved in a pitcher’s duel and with the Royals leading 2-1 when both pitchers left after the sixth inning, the Tigers scored the tying run off of Royals reliever Dusty Hughes. They then scored five runs off of Luis Mendoza, capped by a three-run homerun from Miguel Cabrera.