In the second game, Don Cardwell came close to matching Koosman, pitching eight innings of four-hit ball in a game that the Mets again won, 1-0. And once again, it was the pitcher who drove in the only run, with Cardwell singling to left in the second to score Bud Harrelson.

Two games, two runs, two victories, two runs batted in by the Mets’ starting pitchers.

Almost as remarkable is that the first game lasted 2 hours 19 minutes and the second took just 2:02. Try that now.

And let it be noted that the 1969 Pirates team was a good one — finishing with a record of 88-74 — and that Willie Stargell and Roberto Clemente batted third and fourth in the first game of the doubleheader. Stargell played the second game, too, with Clemente pinch-hitting.

Koosman pitched three shutouts that September, one more than Tom Seaver, as the two combined to win one start after another down the stretch and put the Mets in the postseason for the first time in their history. Now, in the midst of what looms as a fifth consecutive losing season, the Mets are hoping that Harvey and Wheeler will do what Seaver and Koosman once did: make the Mets relevant.