NL decides its playoff picture, AL undecided

Already standing tall, CC Sabathia climbed on top of the Brewers dugout and sprayed fans with bubbly.

A vintage scene, indeed.

For the first time since 1982, when it was a member of the American League and well before wild cards even existed, Milwaukee is going to the playoffs.

"It's our time," Sabathia said after beating the Cubs 3-1 on Sunday.

No such luck for the New York Mets. They lost on the field -- and the out-of-town scoreboard -- and again were eliminated by Florida on the final day. Making it worse, a farewell-to-Shea Stadium followed.

"We failed. We failed as a team," Mets star David Wright said after a 4-2 loss. "There's no pointing fingers. There's no excuses. We as a unit didn't get the job done."

No telling yet about the Minnesota Twins and Chicago White Sox. They still haven't sorted out their AL Central scramble.

So while workers at Wrigley Field and Tropicana Field put up the postseason bunting, this year is going to extra innings.

One slot left, guys.

"It's kind of an ongoing joke that it seems like nobody wanted to win the Central, so this is kind of probably the way it should go down, going into a game tomorrow when the season's supposed to be over," Twins closer Joe Nathan said.

This afternoon, Detroit visits Chicago in a makeup from a September rainout. If the White Sox win, they would host the Twins in a one-game tiebreaker Tuesday for the AL Central title.

Then on Wednesday, the playoffs begin with three games: Manny Ramirez, Joe Torre and the Los Angeles Dodgers take on the Chicago Cubs, the wild-card Brewers travel to Philadelphia and the World Series champion Boston Red Sox play the 100-win Los Angeles Angels.

On Thursday, the Tampa Bay Rays make their postseason debut when they host the White Sox or Twins.