Right up until the end, they held out hope of somehow making it back to the playoffs _ albeit as a wild-card team rather than a division champion.

But their bid ended a full week before the end of the regular season, leaving a meaningless homestand for a team already looking ahead to 2007. The Braves can still avoid a losing year, but only if they close with a six-game winning streak _ something that hasn't happened all season.

``The way the season's been going, even though we didn't want to think we were out of it, it would've been tough,'' Andruw Jones said. ``Guys didn't stay healthy. Not doing the right job, not playing good defence, not hitting when we need to hit, not pitching where we should pitch.

``It's been a season like that.''

The Braves had not missed the playoffs since 1990. The following season, they went from worst to first to spark a run of 14 straight division titles, unprecedented for a major U.S. sport.

But a 6-21 mark in June essentially finished off any hopes of capturing another NL East title. The Braves were mathematically eliminated by the New York Mets two weeks ago.

Atlanta's wild-card hopes officially ended Sunday, when the Braves squandered an early seven-run lead at Coors Field and lost to Colorado 9-8 _ their third straight loss to the Rockies.

An ugly finish to an ugly season.

``It's frustrating, but these last couple of games have been very indicative of our season,'' Chipper Jones said. ``Either we dig a big hole early, fight all the way back and come up one short, or we get out to a big lead and just can't get outs late in the game.''

The Braves got a head start on next season when they re-signed closer Bob Wickman last week, filling a hole that plagued the team much of the last two seasons. But there's still major work to do on the pitching staff, which ranked 13th in the National League with a 4.70 ERA.

``We've done just about everything you can do wrong in one season,'' said John Smoltz, the stalwart of the rotation at age 39. ``It was kind of a torturing process.''

The hitting shows more potential.

The Braves rank near the top of the league with their .270 average, 209 homers and 809 runs. Burgeoning young stars such as Brian McCann, Adam LaRoche and Jeff Francoeur provide a solid nucleus for the middle of the order, surrounding longtime stalwart Andruw Jones.

Chipper Jones put up good numbers _ when he played. But the third baseman had another injury-plagued season, raising more questions about his durability.

Amazingly, the Braves' post-season streak came to an end in a year when the wild-card team will qualify with less than 90 wins. Philadelphia (82-73) held a half-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers (82-74) heading into the season's final week.

``It's definitely not going to take that many games to get in,'' manager Bobby Cox said. ``That's the sad part.''

Smoltz is the only holdover from the last Braves' team that failed to make the playoffs. He's not sure if he feels as optimistic about Atlanta's chances going into next season as he did 16 years ago.

``At the end of 1990, we were thinking, 'Wow, we may not be that far away,''' he said. ``We were going the other way this year. That's why winning these last few weeks would have been nice.''