Charlie Blackmon, Greg Holland win Player of the Month awards

DENVER – Colorado Rockies outfielder Charlie Blackmon has been named National League Player of the Month for May and closer Greg Holland has won his second straight NL Reliever of the Month award.

The Rockies are off to the best start in franchise history and are starting to rack up the hardware to back it up. Holland has been inarguably the best reliever in baseball in 2017, posting a ridiculous 20 saves in 20 attempts. He is the only player not named Lee Smith to accrue that many saves that quickly and efficiently.

Holland has posted a 1.31 ERA while striking out 12.63 and walking 3.05 per nine innings. He has arguably been the biggest difference-maker for Colorado in 2017.

Blackmon just keeps getting better and better as he progresses through his career. A remarkable trend over the past two seasons has been his ability to avoid the effects of the dreaded Coors Field Hangover, posting historically impressive splits. Overall, Blackmon is slashing an eye-popping .320/.350/.610 with 13 home runs and an MLB-leading 47 RBI.

Colorado is 34-22 and are tied for first place in the NL West largely behind the production of these two players, the young starting pitching, and, of course, Mark Reynolds.

They can add these to a trophy case that already includes Blackmon’s win for Player of the Week for the last week of May and Holland’s win of this same award a month ago as well as Antonio Senzatela’s Rookie of the Month award for April.