Welcome to The Show … now go sit down

(Ed Wolfstein photo)

Welcome to the big leagues, Matt Cepicky, who makes his major league debut 22 years ago today as a late-inning replacement for Montreal right fielder Vladimir Guerrero in a 5-1 loss to Arizona before a Wednesday crowd of 11,747 at Olympic Stadium.

Cepicky enters the game in the top of the ninth and finds himself getting his first at-bat in the bottom of the inning – against Randy Johnson, the hard-throwing, 6-foot-11 future Hall of Famer who regularly flosses with left-handed batters like Cepicky.

Doesn’t help Cepicky that his first at-bat in the majors comes after the oft-surly left-hander gives up an RBI single by the light-hitting, shutout-ruining Jose Macias.

Cepicky quickly becomes Johnson's 14th strikeout victim of the game, which ends four pitches later as Johnson strikes out Jose Vidro.

Thankfully for Cepicky, he never again faces Johnson in a career that includes parts of five seasons in the majors from 2002-06.