Blanks, LeBlanc are award winners

ROUND ROCK, Texas - The Pacific Coast League office announced today that Kyle Blanks and Wade LeBlanc of the Tucson Padres have been named Player and Pitcher of the Week for the week of June 27-July 3.

Over six games, Blanks batted .520 (13-for-25) with a .586 on-base percentage and 1.240 slugging percentage. San Diego's 42nd-round draft pick from the 2004 June Draft led the league in extra-base hits (8), total bases (31), runs batted in (15), slugging percentage and OPS (1.826). Blanks also added five home runs during the week, placing him in a tie for the most in the PCL.

Blanks is the current owner of a 20-game hitting streak, which is tied for the second-longest in the PCL this season. Over the 20-game span, the right-handed slugger is batting .463 (37-for-80) with 11 doubles, two triples, nine home runs and 27 RBI. Blanks has played in 23 games with Tucson this season after opening the year with Double-A San Antonio.

In his one start last week, LeBlanc surrendered two hits and no runs over eight innings at Sacramento on July 1st. The left-hander walked the third batter of the game before settling in and retiring 11 straight, a stretch halted by a one-out single from Andy LaRoche in the fifth. LeBlanc finished the outing with six strikeouts against the one walk.

LeBlanc has won his last two starts with Tucson since rejoining the team after a two-start stint with the parent club, the San Diego Padres. San Diego's second round selection from the 2006 June Draft has a 7-1 record with 75 strikeouts and 22 walks in 84.2 innings pitched this season with Tucson. The PCL Pitcher of the Week award is LeBlanc's fourth of his career and first since 2009.

Blanks and LeBlanc is the first pair of teammates to earn the PCL weekly awards in the same week since Seth Etherton and John Lindsey of the Albuquerque Isotopes won the awards for the period ending May 30 in 2010.