Doug Eddings spent Friday night making himself the opponent. Iván Herrera spent the ninth making sure it did not matter.
The Cardinals beat the Rockies 7-6 at Coors Field after a three-run homer from Herrera in the ninth, a 430-foot shot that scored Thomas Saggese and José Fermín and flipped a game that had already been flipped once by the home-plate umpire. Riley O’Brien closed it. St. Louis moved to 71-71. Chip Caray, never one to waste a setup, put the night in one line:
“They were Doug a hole, but it’s a happy Eddings in Colorado.”
Carter Fogarty on X (formerly Twitter): “Talk your shit Brad let’s go!!! @awfulannouncing you gotta see this bs pic.twitter.com/desk0AvTKA / X”
Talk your shit Brad let’s go!!! @awfulannouncing you gotta see this bs pic.twitter.com/desk0AvTKA
The hole was real. St. Louis led 4-1 after five. Rookie Hancel Rincón entered in the sixth wearing No. 66 and a cap that sat a little crooked. Eddings made it a talking point. What followed was a four-run Rockies inning, a wild pitch, a Cole Carrigg homer, an Adael Amador single, a Zac Veen squeeze, and the play that lit the dugout: a throw home that beat the runner by multiple feet. Eddings called him safe. The go-ahead run counted. Oliver Marmol came out and was gone.
Jay Burbridge on X (formerly Twitter): “@MLB @MLBUmpCamps Doug Eddings needs to be investigated. Calling this play safe after arguing with and ejecting the Cardinals manager minutes before. This is also after he issued a pitch clock violation because he felt like it. Being completely biased against the Cardinals. pic.twitter.com/TutWVc6B6T / X”
@MLB @MLBUmpCamps Doug Eddings needs to be investigated. Calling this play safe after arguing with and ejecting the Cardinals manager minutes before. This is also after he issued a pitch clock violation because he felt like it. Being completely biased against the Cardinals. pic.twitter.com/TutWVc6B6T
TJ Rumfield added a solo shot in the seventh to make it 6-4. The Cardinals had no manager, a debutant who had already been lectured about his hat, and a two-run deficit in the thin air. They also had nine innings of baseball left, which Eddings does not get to officiate by himself.
Herrera’s swing in the ninth ended the argument. Three runs. One swing. A win that did not require anyone to pretend the sixth-inning call was close.
Rincón’s first big-league appearance will live in the box score as a third of an inning and the mess that followed. It will live on the broadcast as the cap conversation and the late, generous safe sign at the plate. Marmol’s ejection will live as another night an umpire decided the temperature of the game was his to set.
The Cardinals still won. That is the part Eddings does not get to write.
Cade Winquest picked up the win. O’Brien recorded his 36th save. The series continues Saturday. The hat stays on. The final stays 7-6.
cardinalsgifs on X (formerly Twitter): “https://t.co/qGIJ5UN0RO pic.twitter.com/PenYuVAzZb / X”
https://t.co/qGIJ5UN0RO pic.twitter.com/PenYuVAzZb
