Erik Sabrowski’s journey to the MLB has been anything but easy, but it all paid off Wednesday when he made his major league debut for the Cleveland Guardians.

Recalled by the Guardians on August 28th, Sabrowski, a native of Edmonton Alta., entered their game against the Kansas City Royals in the bottom of the seventh inning, inheriting one runner on second base and two outs.

His first pitch was a wild one, high over the strike zone and past the backstop, allowing the runner,  the speedy Bobby Witt Jr., to advance to third. But Sabrowski, who became the fifth-born player to play in an MLB game with his appearance, stuck with it, striking out the first batter he faced, Yuli Gurriel, a veteran of 24 pro seasons worldwide, with an 88.2 mph slider to end the inning.

In the bottom of the eighth, Sabrowski squared up with Royals third baseman Paul DeJong, who fought off nine pitches before striking out on a four-seam fastball at the top of the zone.

The lefty saw designated hitter Robbie Grossman, inducing a pop-out on a curveball, before second baseman Mikael Garcia doubled on a line drive to left field. Sabrowski’s curveball continued to put in work against Freddy Fermin, who flew out to end the inning.

“It felt amazing,” Sabrowski said after the game. “It was a few days, but I just kept telling myself to ‘stay ready, stay ready, my time was going to come.’ And fortunately, it happened tonight.”

His first strikeout ball will head home with him.

“You see it sometimes, people throw that ball into the stands, but I was like ‘No, I’ve worked too hard for that to watch that one go away,'” he said, holding back emotions. “That’s a ball I’m going to hold onto for the rest of my life.

“There’s so many people that are a part of today, and I’m just fortunate to have all them. It’s a really special day.”

Before his call-up, Sabrowski split time between the Guardians’ Double-A affiliate, throwing 11 and two-thirds innings and Triple-A affiliate, adding another 37 innings. In Double-A ball, he struck out 54.2 percent of the batters he faced, walking just 4.2 percent, while allowing just one earned run for a 0.77 ERA.

In Triple-A, he struck out 31.2 percent of batters, walking 17.6 percent, while posting a 4.38 ERA.

Sabrowski grew up playing for the St. Albert Cardinals minor baseball team, before heading to Cloud Community College in Concordia, Kan., an article in the St. Albert Gazette detailed. Drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 14th round of the 2018 draft, getting Tommy John surgery shortly thereafter. The article added that he missed the entire 2019 season due to injury and 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he got his first taste of pro ball in 2021, with the Padres’ High-A team, before suffering another Tommy John injury.

The only other four Edmonton-born players are Vince Barton (1931-1932), Dave Shipanoff (1985), Mike Johnson (1997-2001) and Rob Zastryzny (2016-2024).

Sabrowski, a fan of Oilersnation and the Edmonton Oilers, spoke with our own Tyler Yaremchuk last month, speaking further about his baseball journey.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.