UCLA's Michael Toglia Finds Swing in Big League Return

After spending a few weeks in Triple-A Albuquerque, Colorado Rockies first baseman and former UCLA Bruin Michael Toglia is raking in his major league return.

Since returning to the Rockies on Monday, he is batting .385 with five hits, three home runs and five RBIs in 13 trips to the plate.

His return was mostly highlighted on Tuesday, though, when Toglia put up the second multi-home run game of his career in a 10-6 win against the Washington Nationals. The former Bruin went 3-for-5, bringing in three runners. Toglia's two homers were part of Colorado's franchise record-tying seven home runs on Tuesday.

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.