Hancel Rincon waited his whole life for his MLB debut, and it lasted one out before turning into a referendum on hat etiquette. The Cardinals rookie righty got Goodman on a liner to open the sixth (2096059716313219431), then, mid at-bat against the next hitter, home plate umpire Doug Eddings called time to tell him to straighten his cap.
Home plate umpire Doug Eddings called time to tell Hancel Rincon to fix his hat. Oli Marmol was later ejected after sticking up for Rincon, who was making his MLB debut.
Marmol did not take it well. Umpires stopping a pitcher's rhythm during his first big-league appearance to comment on wardrobe is the kind of thing managers are built to lose it over, and Marmol lost it. He was ejected for the 4th time this season and the 25th time in his career (2096063100361547847), and it clearly still bothered him hours later.
"Grow the fuck up" Cardinals manager Oli Marmol was furious with umpire Doug Eddings after Eddings told rookie pitcher Hancel Rincon to fix his hat in the middle of his MLB debut
The baseball got worse for Rincon before it got better for anyone else. After the ejection delay, he gave up a triple, then watched Cole Carrigg turn a ball in the gap into an inside-the-park home run — the kind of full-sprint, everybody's-out-of-position play that swings a debut and a dugout in the same instant.
INSIDE-THE-PARKER FOR COLE CARRIGG! (Via: @Rockies)
That home run was also the flashpoint. Marmol reportedly stormed by third base still fuming over whether Carrigg had actually touched the bag on his way around (2096063613845025037), and the Rockies used the inning to hit for the cycle and tie the game — all while Marmol's ejection over the hat call was still fresh. Rincon didn't survive the frame; the Cardinals lifted him after a single from Connor Norby, and his first MLB line read one out, a triple, an inside-the-park homer and a single allowed.
Postgame, Marmol didn't soften anything. He called Eddings' handling of the situation "embarrassing," saying, "He tells him that he needs to fix his hat during an at-bat, and the kid's not wearing his hat like that on my field. Last I checked, this was Coors Field." That's a dig at a road umpire enforcing a home manager's dress code, and it's the line that's going to follow Eddings around — a 1998-vintage ump already best known for the disputed 2005 ALCS strikeout call that helped decide a White Sox-Angels series, now picking a fight with a rookie over headwear.
Oli Marmol called it "embarrassing" the way Doug Eddings handled the situation. "He tells him that he needs to fix his hat during an at-bat, and the kid's not wearing his hat like that on my field. Last I checked, this was Coors Field."
None of it mattered in the box score. Down late, Iván Herrera came up in the ninth and hit a go-ahead, three-run shot projected at 430 feet to flip a game the Cardinals had let slip away. St. Louis held on to win 7-6 in a game Derrick Goold summed up simply as "tipsy" — a blown lead, a blown-call argument and a ninth-inning bailout all in the same nine innings.
This HR at Coors isn’t being robbed!!! Cardinals lead in the 9th
The night also had a quieter milestone buried in the chaos — Jordan Walker drove in his 100th run of the season on a fifth-inning sacrifice fly, becoming the first homegrown Cardinals outfielder to hit the mark since Ray Lankford, and pairing with Alec Burleson as the club's first 100-RBI duo since Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado in 2022 (2096059598365241460). It's the kind of stat that would've been the story on a normal night in St. Louis. On this one, it barely made the recap.