VIDEO: Brewers' Maldonado literally tears the cover off the ball

You hear the saying all the time: "He's tearing the cover off the ball."

But Friday night, Brewers catcher Martin Maldonado literally tore the cover off the ball.

During the sixth inning against the Pirates, Maldonado hit a ball to Pittsburgh third baseman Pedro Alvarez.

Upon picking it up, Alvarez felt something weird about the ball. He took a quick glance down into his glove only to realize that that part of the cover was hanging off the ball. He then did the only thing he could do and that was to throw it to first base in an attempt to throw Maldonado out.

Unfortunately for Alvarez, his throw fell well short and Maldonado reached first safely.

It's an event you won't see too often, so take a look at the video above for visual evidence.