CC Sabathia and Ryan Braun helped the Brewers end 26 years of frustration, while Mets fans watched a frustrating finale rerun of their wretched September collapse from a year ago.

With the NL wild-card spot up for grabs, the Mets and Brewers were both involved in tie games in the eighth inning on Sunday. But in a matter of minutes, the Mets bullpen imploded yet again and Braun hit a home run that put Milwaukee in the playoffs and sent Mets fans home from the Shea Stadium finale deeply disappointed. Again.

Scott Schoeneweis and Luis Ayala served up back-to-back homers in the eighth inning to Wes Helms and Dan Uggla, and New York completed their second consecutive September slide with a 4-2 loss to Florida.

"We failed. We failed as a team," David Wright said. "There's no pointing fingers. There's no excuses. We as a unit didn't get the job done."

Minutes later at Milwaukee, Braun put the Brewers ahead with a two-run homer. Sabathia did the rest, helping the Brewers hold on to beat the Chicago Cubs 3-1.

"It's our time," Sabathia said.

Milwaukee will face Philadelphia in the first round of the playoffs. The NL Central champion Cubs will play the Los Angeles Dodgers.

At New York, Ryan Church flied out to deep center with a runner on for the final out, ending the Mets' season.

Minnesota and Chicago each won on what should have been baseball's final regular-season day to remain within a half game of each other in the AL Central. That means Detroit heads to Chicago on Monday for a makeup game, with a White Sox win setting up a one-game playoff with the Twins on Tuesday for the division crown.

"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," Twins closer Joe Nathan said.

Scott Baker scattered four singles over seven shutout innings, pitching the Twins past the Kansas City Royals 6-0 on Sunday. Backed by four double plays, Mark Buehrle led the White Sox to a 5-1 win over the Cleveland Indians.