Former Bruin Michael Toglia Erupts in Loss to Dodgers

Since being recalled to the majors after spending nearly a month in Triple-A Albuquerque, Colorado Rockies first baseman and former UCLA Bruins standout Michael Toglia has been getting right back on track following a three-hit, two-RBI appearance against the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Rockies lost 9-7, but Toglia stood out on the plate, hitting an RBI double to open up the scoring in the first inning and coming back in the third for another RBI double. Colorado jumped out to an early lead but the Dodgers stormed back to steal a win in the first game of the series.

Since returning to Colorado, Toglia is batting .303 with 10 hits, three home runs, eight RBIs and eight runs scored in eight games. In his first series back against the Washington Nationals, the former Bruin slugged all three of his home runs and accounted for five RBIs in 13 trips to the plate.

Before being optioned in late May, Toglia was batting .194 and had just 36 hits, six home runs, 20 RBIs and 81 strikeouts in 54 games and 186 at-bats (205 plate appearances).

This is a familiar trend for Toglia. After being optioned for two months and recalled on June 6 last season, he raked for a .469 batting average and slugged 21 home runs over Colorado's remaining 101 games.

It didn't take nearly as long for the UCLA alumni to find his groove in Albuquerque this season, though.

"That was the turning point, where I felt, ‘OK, I’m back,’” Toglia told MLB.com recalling a seven-RBI game against Oklahoma City. “I can cover the zone how I need to cover it. The pitch was in, off the plate, and to be able to keep it fair told me that I’ve been doing a lot of things right. I just built on that.”

Toglia played in 178 games over three seasons in Westwood. He finished his Bruins career slashing .307/.410/.573 for 36 home runs, 156 RBIs, 51 doubles, six triples, 111 walks and 134 runs scored over 644 at-bats.

In his junior year in 2019, he was named an All-American honorable mention by Perfect Game and was selected to the Pac-12 All-Conference team.

He started in and played in all 59 of UCLA's games in 2018, his sophomore year, and was given an All-Pac-12 selection and earned All-Regional Team honors at the NCAA Minneapolis Regional.

Toglia was selected 23rd overall in the first round of the 2019 MLB First-Year Player Draft by the Rockies and was UCLA's first position player to be taken in the first round since Chase Utley in 2000.

Time will tell if Toglia can have the same post-call up success as he did last season.