Oliver Marmol ejected after umpire tells Cardinals rookie Hancel Rincon to straighten his hat

Oliver Marmol did not make it out of the sixth inning of the Cardinals’ series opener against the Colorado Rockies. Home-plate umpire Doug Eddings tossed him after an argument that started with how rookie reliever Hancel Rincon was wearing his hat in his first major-league appearance.

St. Louis still left with a 7-6 win, sealed by Ivan Herrera’s 430-foot homer in the ninth. The final score almost felt secondary.

Hancel Rincon’s debut takes a strange turn

Hancel Rincon entered with the Cardinals ahead 4-1, relieving Andre Pallante, who had thrown five innings of one-run ball in his return from the injured list. The 24-year-old right-hander, called up from Triple-A Memphis days earlier, retired Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman on a liner to second. Then the inning slipped: a triple by TJ Rumfield, an inside-the-park home run by Cole Carrigg, and a single by Connor Norby. Marmol brought in Justin Bruihl to finish the frame. Pallante was left with a no-decision.

In the middle of that sequence, Eddings stopped play and had Rincon straighten his cap.

Marmol calls it a power-hungry move

Marmol kept talking after the pitching change. Bruihl was charged with a pitch-clock violation. Then Marmol was gone, his fourth ejection of the season. He made a point of saying he was not arguing the challenge on Rumfield’s triple.

“I had an issue with Doug,” Marmol said. “Just Doug. He took it upon himself to tell our rookie pitcher the kid's ‘not going to wear his hat on my field that way.’ You got Dontrelle Willis, CC Sabathia, Pedro Strop, plenty of guys that have worn it way more tilted. I have an issue with that. That's just a power-hungry move, in my opinion."

Eddings said Rincon was not breaking a written rule.

“It's not [a rule],” Eddings said. “I guess it's a little unwritten rule. They can't wear [their cap] backwards like a catcher. If it's a distraction, like anything on the field, like a glove or something, and someone makes you aware of it, then you kind of address that.”

Rookie says it did not bother him

Rincon did not argue the instruction and said it did not pull him off his game.

“I had no idea why he told me to do it,” Rincon said through an interpreter. “It's fine.”

Herrera wins it in the ninth

The Cardinals trailed until the ninth, when a throwing error in the previous at-bat set the table and Herrera drove a Statcast-projected 430-foot homer to center. Final: Cardinals 7, Rockies 6.