six-year, $15 million contract. His future seemed promising for the season, with a .250 average and 3 home runs in April. In one game against the Yankees, Longoria hit a home run that capped a 5-run inning to tie the game, and a few weeks later, he homered off of Josh Beckett of the Red Sox, which provided a cushion for the team to complete their first sweep of the Boston Red Sox in franchise history. James Shields, with the absence of Scott Kazmir, became the team's ace pitcher. In six starts, he went 3–1, with the one loss coming to the New York Yankees, opposite their ace Chien-Ming Wang. On April 27, he pitched his first complete game of his career in a game against the Red Sox, where he allowed only 3 batters to reach base. Just a few days after his career outing, he was named AL Player of the Week. After their sweep of the Red Sox, the Rays were 14–11, which was the latest the team had ever been 3 games over .500 in a season. In 26 games during the month, the Rays went 14–12, which marked the first time in franchise history that the team had a winning record for the month of April. May After winning a series in Baltimore on May 1, the Rays were 16–12, the first time ever the team was 4 games over .500. Although they suffered a sweep to the Red Sox at Fenway Park immediately following, they bounced back with a series win against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre and a sweep of the Angels at Tropicana Field. After a win over the Yankees in extra innings Hank Steinbrenner, Senior Vice President and part-owner of the New York Yankees, expressed his frustration with his team at the time, saying that the Yankees "got to start playing the way the Rays are playing", and that he wished the Rays were in a different division. Hank also stated that he was happy for the Rays, but that he wished they played in the National League instead. Following a win on Memorial Day, the Rays became the first team in over 100 years to hold the best record in the league through Memorial Day after having the worst record in the league the year before. The last team to do it was the New York Giants in 1903.