A.J. Burnett has rosin bag explode on him during Opening Day start (Animated)

Pittsburgh Pirates ace A.J. Burnett had a pretty rough first game of the season on Monday. His pitching performance was actually quite solid — he Burnett threw 5.2 innings and allowed three earned runs on six hits. He also managed to strike out 10 Chicago Cubs, but the Pirates were unable to give him any run support and went on to lose 3-1. Oh, and then there was the whole exploding rosin bag thing.

Burnett was simply trying to dry his hands off like any other hurler when he fell victim to either a rosin bag malfunction or a brilliant April Fools prank. I’m going to pretend it was the latter and that his teammates were snickering in the dugout waiting for him to pick the thing up. Could something like that frustrate Burnett and throw off his rhythm? Perhaps, but it’s the first game of a 162-game season. And they’re the Pirates. Sorry — it’s a little too early for low blows.

Watch the video below to see the full thing:

GIF via Deadspin