DENVER -- Can honors be small, but huge at the same time? The Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon worked his way through that question Wednesday, when he was chosen as the National League Player of the Month.

Blackmon returned from a right calf strain on June 8, and over 22 games he went 40-for-97 (.412), with nearly half his hits (19) going for extra bases and 10 of them homers. From June 13-15, he became the first player since the Dodgers' Rafael Furcal in 2007 with four hits in three straight games.

Blackmon, 33, said “that you’ve played a really good one-sixth of a baseball season,” which sounds minimizing until he describes what it takes to do well for that period.

“There’s so many good players in the league, and to be recognized as one of the top guys over a 25-, 30-game span is really nice,” said Blackmon, honored the same day that his former Colorado teammate, DJ LeMahieu, earned the award in the American League for his standout June with the Yankees. “That’s certainly long enough to have ups and downs. And if you win this award, that means you were pretty good for a long period, without a whole lot of those downs.”

But the idea is to keep things going, which sometimes means blocking out the past, good or bad. For example, Blackmon had to be reminded that he won the award for May 2017.

Blackmon is the first Rockies winner since Nolan Arenado in July 2017.

Blackmon said he had not reached out to LeMahieu, but “DJ’s mom texted me already.”

LeMahieu, 30, hit safely in all but three of his 25 June games. In total, he slashed .395/.434/.658 with six homers, two triples, eight doubles, 29 RBIs and 26 runs scored. He becomes the first Yankee to be named AL Player of the Month since Didi Gregorius last April.

“It’s really exciting that people realize DJ is a really good player,” Blackmon said. “I think DJ would tell you that he really doesn’t care about that. But it is a big deal, but at the same time there’s still half a season to play. A lot can happen.”

Going into Wednesday, LeMahieu led the AL in batting at .341, and Blackmon ranked third in the NL at .336. They won NL batting titles in consecutive years with the Rockies, LeMahieu in 2016 and Blackmon in 2017.