On September 6th, 1985, in a matchup of aces that actually lived up to its advanced billing, Mets phenom Dwight Gooden and Dodgers phenom Fernando Valenzuela hooked up in one of the best pitchers’ duel in recent memory. New York beat Los Angeles at Chavez Ravine, 2-0. Darryl Strawberry hit a two-run double to score the only runs of the game. Gooden struck out 10 batters and threw nine shutout innings. Lefty Valenzuel pitched 11 innings without allowing a run.

A pitching matchup between two Aces is always something fun to anticipate. Unfortunately, they do not always end up being great games. Baseball is a funny sport after all.

One of the usually reliable starters may be having an off day, his defense may make errors and poor defensive plays behind him, it may just be a day when bloop hits are falling in, it could be a full moon, or one of the pitchers could have eaten bad sushi.

With starting pitchers not going 8 and 9 innings any more, I wonder about the future of such pitching matchups. Will they still happen? Or do we need to change our expectations to two quality starts?

Anyway, on this day 39 years ago, the stars did align and they both shone bright. It would be a game to add to the Time Machine list.