Hancel Rincon’s first inning in the majors turned into a scene nobody in St. Louis is likely to forget anytime soon.
The Cardinals rookie, up from Triple-A Memphis, came into Friday’s game against the Rockies with St. Louis ahead 4-1 and got the call in the sixth inning at Coors Field. What should have been a straightforward debut quickly veered off the rails when home-plate umpire Doug Eddings stopped play in the middle of Rincon’s matchup with Cole Carrigg to address the angle of the pitcher’s hat.
Eddings had catcher Leo Bernal pass along the message that Rincon needed to straighten his cap. Rincon did it, seemingly without much idea why the game had been halted in the first place. MLB later said Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman had first raised the question of whether Rincon could wear his hat that way.
Then the baseball part of the inning took over in the worst possible way for St. Louis.
Three pitches later, Carrigg launched an inside-the-park home run. Rincon gave up another hit after that, and Cardinals manager Oli Marmol came out to pull him.
While Justin Bruihl was getting loose, Marmol walked toward Eddings to talk through the bizarre sequence. He later said he found the whole thing embarrassing, especially with Rincon making his debut, and took issue with the idea that the rookie’s cap was somehow a problem at Coors Field.
“Some words exchanged there. Quite honestly, I thought it was pretty embarrassing on his end.”
The conversation only got worse from there. Marmol was hit with a pitch-clock violation while he was still arguing, and Eddings ejected him. MLB confirmed it was Marmol’s fourth ejection of the season.
The most unusual part came in Eddings’ own explanation. He acknowledged that Rincon had not broken a formal rule, calling the cap issue an unwritten rule instead.
“It’s not (a rule),” Eddings said, per MLB.com. “I guess it’s a little unwritten rule.”
Rincon said afterward that the exchange didn’t affect him, though his debut unraveled almost immediately once play resumed. He finished with one out recorded and three runs allowed.
The Cardinals’ broadcast team also wasn’t sold on the call. Chip Caray and Brad Thompson both questioned the decision live, with Thompson saying the hat had nothing to do with any actual uniform violation.
“That is not his job to do,” he said. “He’s not wearing his hat backwards. This wasn’t a uniform violation.”
Caray echoed that umpires should keep the focus on the game instead of inserting themselves into the story.
The inning wasn’t done creating headaches, either. A controversial play at the plate followed later in the frame, and St. Louis had already used all of its replay challenges, so the Cardinals had no way to challenge it.
Even with the chaos surrounding Rincon’s debut, the Cardinals still managed to pull out the win. Iván Herrera’s go-ahead three-run homer in the ninth lifted St. Louis past Colorado 7-6.
For Rincon, though, the introduction to the big leagues was unforgettable for reasons that had almost nothing to do with pitching.
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