ATLANTA — A franchise known for its postseason flops switched to fast-forward this time.

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TAMI CHAPPELL/REUTERS

The Braves finished 9-18 in September after entering with a 10 1/2-game lead in the wild card. Catcher Brian McCann (from left) hit .180 over his last 37 games, while closer Craig Kimbrel blew three saves in his final eight appearances.

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The Atlanta Braves went ahead and blew it before the playoffs.

Joining the Boston Red Sox in a pair of unprecedented September swoons, the Braves spent Thursday cleaning out their lockers rather than packing for an NL Division Series that seemed all but certain only a few weeks ago.

For reliever Jonny Venters – and, undoubtedly, many of his teammates – the end-of-the-
season ritual followed a sleepless night.

“I was just sitting in bed,” he said. “I couldn’t really believe what happened.”

He’s not alone.

Atlanta had a 10½-game lead on St. Louis in late August. The margin was still 8½ games the first week of September. But the pitching faded, and the offense that had been a problem all year was finally exposed.

A dismal 9-18 record in the final month capped by a five-game losing streak finished off the Braves. The Cardinals claimed the wild card when Atlanta closed the season with another excruciating defeat, 4-3 to Philadelphia in 13 innings after closer Craig Kimbrel – who set a rookie record with 46 saves – squandered a lead in the ninth.

“Our goal, want to make playoffs,” first-year manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “We wanted to keep putting pennants up there (on the stadium facade). It didn’t happen.”

The Braves have plenty of pennants above the left-field stands at Turner Field, most of them commemorating an unprecedented 14 consecutive division titles from 1991-2005. While impressive, most people remember all the championships they failed to win.

In fairness to the Braves, they were short-handed down the stretch. All-Star Jair Jurrjens (13-6) and Tommy Hanson (11-7), were sidelined by injuries and the bullpen, led by Kimbrel, Venters and Eric O’Flaherty, lost some of its swagger. And the hitting totally shut down, averaging over three runs a game the final month.

“Everybody started struggling at the same time,” Venters said. “Everything just kind of snowballed.”

Looking ahead to 2012 Atlanta will undoubtedly need to address a lineup that seemed to have all the necessary parts – especially after acquiring leadoff hitter Michael Bourn at the trade deadline – but never found its groove.

The Braves ranked 13th in the NL with a .243 average and 10th in runs (3.96 a game). They were impatient, rarely working deep into counts, and hit under .200 with runners in scoring position in September.

“If you look at our offense for the whole year, it never clicked for whatever reason,” Gonzalez said. “It never hit on all cylinders. The pitching covered it up for five months.”

In the end, that wasn’t enough to make up for a dismal season by Jason Heyward (.227, 14 homers, 42 RBI), a hideous finish by All-Star catcher Brian McCann (.180 over the last 37 games) and a mediocre showing by 2010 All-Star Martin Prado (whose average dropped from .307 the previous season to .260). Dan Uggla got off to a miserable start, bounced back with a 33-game hitting streak and finished with a career-best 36 homers and 82 RBI. But he still hit only .233.

“There’s probably nobody in Atlanta sports under as much pressure as he is filling Bobby Cox’s shoes. To have it slip away in late September, it’s cruel,” Chipper Jones said of Gonzalez. “It’s not indicative of the way this team played, or the way he managed and what we deserve in this situation. But baseball’s like that. It’s kind to you one day and fickle the next.”