Brewers in, Mets out

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 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,” 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 A.L. 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.

Detroit visits Chicago this afternoon in a makeup from a rainout earlier this month. If the White Sox win, they would host the Twins in a one-game tiebreaker Tuesday for the A.L. 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.

Along with playing the winningest team in the majors, the Red Sox will face another obstacle: Josh Beckett, who was supposed to pitch the opener, will not start until Game 3 after straining a muscle in his side a few days ago.

By then, the Tampa Bay Rays will have made their postseason debut. They host either the White Sox or Twins on Thursday.

Before the Rays beat Detroit 8-7 in 11 innings Sunday, manager Joe Maddon held a brief team meeting.

“Joe just said to keep everything normal – like any other game. There’s no reason to start showing up five hours before the game now. It’s another game and we need to prepare like it’s another game,” pitcher James Shields said.

Inside their clubhouse at Comerica Park, there also was a note on a dry erase board: Wear your A.L. East champs shirts on the flight back home, it reminded the Rays.

The White Sox are hoping to join the Rays this week. They gave themselves a chance with a 5-1 win over Cleveland while Minnesota was beating Kansas City 6-0.