An umpire’s belief that a Cardinals rookie pitcher was committing a fashion faux pas led to a wild ejection for manager Oliver Marmol.

Umpire Eddings asked reliever Hancel Rincon to straighten his hat before he began pitching to Hunter Goodman to start the bottom of the sixth inning in his MLB debut during the Cardinals’ 7-6 win over the Rockies at Coors Field on Friday night. 

“I thought it was pretty embarrassing on his end,” Marmol said after the game. “We have a kid making his debut and … he tells him that he needs to fix his hat and the kid’s not going to wear his hat like that on my field.”

While Rincon was puzzled by the request, he obliged with no argument.

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

Until it wasn’t. 

Rincon, 24, allowed a one-out triple to TJ Rumsfield, an inside-the-park home run to Cole Carrigg and a single to Connor Norby before Marol took the rookie out for Justin Bruihl after three runs scored and the Rockies took a 5-4 lead.

Marmol was in Eddings’ face during Bruihl’s warmups, earning a pitch-clock violation and an ejection.

The skipper had a clear problem with Eddings’ hat request of his young pitcher and could be seeing telling Eddings to “grow the f–ck up” on the field after his ejection.

“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,” Marmol said. “I have an issue with that. That’s just a power-hungry move, in my opinion.” 

Eddings called the hat “really crooked” and revealed it was Goodman who brought Rincon’s hat to his attention, saying: “‘Hey, can he wear his hat like that?’” 

“I asked the catcher to tell him to straighten his hat out, and the pitcher did,” Eddings said, according to MLB.com. “Nobody said anything until he gave up a couple runs.”

The veteran umpire admitted Rincon wasn’t breaking a hard MLB rule, but Goodman seeing it as a distraction is what made him make the request. 

“I guess it’s a little unwritten rule,” Edding said. “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.”  

It ultimately didn’t hurt the Cardinals, who sit 3 ½ games behind the Padres for the final NL Wild Card, but certainly made for an adventurous debut for Rincon.