Matt Turner has shown his prowess for keeping clean sheets, but it turns out he can pitch pretty well, too.
The New England Revolution goalkeeper, who recently helped the US men's national team lift the Concacaf Gold Cup, threw out the first pitch before the Boston Red Sox game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night. The Revs' social media team, of course, was there to document it.
The game was a romp, with the Red Sox scoring 20 runs in what ended as a 20-8 contest — and only because the visitors managed to engineer a seven-run burst of their own in the top of the 9th inning. When the score got to 18-1, one Revs-adjacent Twitter account offered, "Let Matt Turner pitch an inning, Red Sox."
Turner was a baseball player in high school before checking out soccer. The 2010 FIFA World Cup inspired Turner to switch from baseball to soccer as his main sport, and he played college soccer at Fairfield University as a walk-on, but still may wonder a bit about what might have been.
In an interview with CBS Boston during the game, Turner noted, after revealing he was nervous since he hadn't thrown off a mound in about a decade: "For younger Matt Turner, this is a huge, huge milestone. This is something that I've always wanted to do since I was a little kid."
Asked what it meant for an older Matt Turner, he said: "Same thing. I'm always a little kid inside, so just be able to do that, to be accepted by the city of Boston, by the people here at Fenway, it's a really special night."
Despite being the apparent good luck charm for Boston's beloved baseball team, Turner's definitely focused on soccer — and playing well enough to shine for this year's MLS All-Star Team, ahead of the Aug. 25 showcase match against the Liga MX All-Stars in Los Angeles.
The Revs next see action on Saturday night during a road trip to face Toronto FC.
