Cardinals' rookie reliever Hancel Rincon, who was making his MLB debut, was told to straighten up his hat during Friday's sixth inning -- much to the dismay of manager Oliver Marmol and the St. Louis coaching staff. Undeterred, the Cards rallied for the win thanks to Ivan Herrera's blast.
Marmol was angered in Friday’s sixth inning when Eddings came out from behind the plate and insisted that the 24-year-old Rincon straighten up his tilted hat. Marmol believed that moment played a role in rattling the rookie, who was making his MLB debut. Rincon was tagged for three hits and three earned runs in the sixth inning – one that included the umpire exchange after he had spiked wild pitch short of the plate to allow a run to score.
Marmol discussed the exchange with Eddings after removing Rincon from the game. Then, when Eddings hit veteran left-hander Justin Bruihl with a pitch clock violation, Marmol, bench coach Daniel Descalso and pitching coach Dusty Blake were incensed and voiced their displeasure from the dugout and led to Marmol’s fourth ejection of 2026 and his 25th career ejection.
"Some words were exchanged there and, quite honestly, I thought it was pretty embarrassing on (Eddings') end," Marmol said to Cardinals TV. "We have a kid making his debut and in between an at bat (Eddings) tells (Rincon) to fix his hat and 'the kid's not going to wear his hat like that on my field.' So, I told him, 'The last I checked this is Coors Field,' I took issue with it and then the pitch timer violation while I'm out there having a discussion, that's also stupid, in my opinion.
"So, there's a lot of moving parts to that one. At the end of the day, I thought they handled it poorly and I'd like an explanation (from the league office) at some point."
Marmol watched on TV from his office when Ivan Herrera crushed a 430-foot, three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning to propel the Cardinals into the lead. Then, he saw Riley O’Brien close out the Rockies in the bottom of the ninth – a night after blowing a save in Los Angeles against the Dodgers.
Remarkably, the Cardinals rallied to win a night after arriving at their downtown Denver hotel after 4:30 a.m. MT following the flight from LA and the time change.
“You have to be able to win those games because everybody’s tired,” Marmol said. “We got in at 5 (AM local time), but you figure out a way to get some energy for about three hours, and you get after it. So, I’m glad to see our guys come through.”
