Kimbrel on loss: 'Everybody showed up to play except myself' 

It was an all too familiar scene in the Braves locker room Thursday night: One man, waiting for the mass media to gather and apologize for his play on the field.

In almost the exact same spot in the Braves clubhouse where Brooks Conrad owned up for this three errors in Game 3 of the NLDS against the Giants, Craig Kimbrel took blame for the loss that kept the team out of an NL Wildcard play-in game against the St. Louis Cardinals.

“The fact of the matter is, everybody on this team, everybody in this clubhouse, showed up to play today and gave everything they could to win this game, except myself,” said Kimbrel. “I didn’t go out there and pitch to my ability. Part of being a closer is being able to bottle up your emotions and harness them, and I didn’t do that today.”

At least a year ago, the Braves got to pop champagne. They were up by 8 1/2 games Sept. 6, but thanks to five wins in their final 18 games, they became the first team in major league history to blow a lead of at least eight games for a playoff spot in September.

“I let my team down and I let my emotions get the best of me,” said Kimbrel after the 4-3, 13-inning loss. “Being in the 9th inning and being excited, when you let that get to you, you’re not the same pitcher, and I let that get to me today.”

The Braves do not win 89 games without Kimbrel. He blew eight saves all year, but three of them came in September and the team needed him in order to play in October.

“He’s been a stud all year,” said Tim Hudson. “One of the best closers in the game this year and probably the rookie of the year. He’s unbelievable, a great teammate, great kid who works hard. He just had one night where it did not fall in place for him. It just happened to be the last game of the season.”

If Chipper Jones had a chance to replay the ninth inning, he would have done one thing different.

“(Not calming Kimbrel down) was probably my fault,” Jones said. “I thought about going in and saying something to him before the inning (like), ‘Hey, again this is no different, calm yourself down and play catch with B-Mac.’ And I thought to myself, you know what, he’s good enough; he’ll hold it in check and have it under control. Unfortunately, I wish I had to do it over it again.”

There are a lot of things the Braves wish they could do over and unfortunately, they will have six months to think about it.

“September is the hardest month of the year and I didn’t figure it out,” said Kimbrel. “It’s going to make me work a lot harder in the off-season.”