PHOENIX – The Arizona Diamondbacks arrived at Chase Field Monday afternoon for a light workout and plenty to worry about.

After watching the scoreboard for an entire afternoon, their fears were confirmed. There will be no postseason for the defending National League champions.

The Atlanta Braves and New York Mets split their doubleheader in Atlanta on Monday, meaning both teams will advance to the playoffs, while the Diamondbacks were one team or the other eliminated. All three finished the regular season with a record of 89-73, but the Mets and Braves both had a tiebreaker against Arizona for winning the season series.

In the end, we had no choice but to watch the season go by on television. Diamondbacks star Zac Gallen was playing catch on the field as the final out was recorded before leaving the field and stalking to the clubhouse.

“I was planning on playing tomorrow,” Gallen said.

Monday’s doubleheader between the Mets and Braves was scheduled a day after the expected end of the regular season after Hurricane Helene wiped out two of their games in Atlanta last week.

It wasn’t an ideal situation for anyone involved.

“It’s unfortunate, but you can’t control the weather,” Gallen said. “Who knew a hurricane would happen? That’s more of the bigger picture – people are losing their lives and their homes. It would be a little tone-deaf for me to get upset about a natural disaster.”

“The more disappointing part is that we – to some extent – controlled our own destiny and didn’t make it. Not executed.”

The D-Backs needed either the Mets or the Braves to win the two games on Monday to get into the postseason, but there was little incentive for the Mets to win the second game of the doubleheader as they struggled through one Victory had already secured their place in the playoffs in the first game.

The Braves were much more motivated since a win would secure their own spot in October. Even after star left-hander Chris Sale was ruled out of his scheduled start due to back spasms, they won 3-0.

Diamondbacks first baseman Christian Walker said there was no one to blame but himself.

“Frustration, but not for the (Mets),” Walker said. “Any team would have mastered it like that. … If we’re unhappy about that, it’s time to look within and say we could have done more and played better.”

It’s a bitter end for the Diamondbacks, who had hoped to provide a worthy addition to their surprise run to the World Series last season.

They were active in the offseason adding players and acquiring hitters like Eugenio Suárez, Joc Pederson and Randal Grichuk. They also tried to strengthen the pitching staff by adding Jordan Montgomery and Eduardo Rodriguez.

Some of these steps worked, some didn’t. They fell one win short of October despite winning five more games than last year, when they sneaked into the group after an 84-win season.

There are many reasons for the disappointment, including the 2:5 record in the last week of the season. The stumble began on Sept. 22, when they built an 8-0 lead in the third inning in Milwaukee, only to lose 10-9. It was the largest blown lead that ended in defeat in franchise history.

They never seemed to fully recover.

“We controlled our own destiny there for a while and then let it slip out of our hands,” pitcher Merrill Kelly said. “There are a lot of games that I think we let go of.”

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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb