NEW YORK (AP) – Following the last bewildering loss of a season gone sour, the dejected New York Mets filed into their quiet clubhouse and packed for a particularly stark winter.

When they needed a big game, Tom Glavine pitched one of his worst. And now, their collapse is complete.

After blowing a big September lead in the NL East, the Mets missed the playoffs Sunday when Glavine was battered for seven runs during the first inning of a season-ending 8-1 loss to the Florida Marlins.

“It’s something that’s going to take a while for us to get over,” said Glavine, pitching for maybe the last time in his major league career.

New York’s defeat coupled with Philadelphia’s 6-1 win over Washington gave the division title to the Phillies and sent the stunned Mets home wondering how they squandered a seven-game cushion over the final 18 days of an excruciating season.

Now, David Wright, Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez and the rest of this talented team will forever be remembered alongside the 1964 Phillies and other famous failures for skidding to one of baseball’s most monumental collapses.

“It’s going to be a long offseason. I know I don’t want to experience it again,” Wright said.

No major league team had owned a lead of seven games or more with 17 to play and failed to finish in first place. New York, which had that margin on Sept. 12, matched the largest lead blown in September. The 1934 New York Giants (Sept. 6) and 1938 Pittsburgh Pirates (Sept. 1) and also led by seven games in the final month only to drop into a fatal tailspin.

A win Sunday not only would have kept the Mets even with Philadelphia and forced a one-game playoff for the division title, it would have tied them with Colorado and San Diego for the wild card.

Instead, the Mets lost six of their final seven games – all at home – and are out.

“Everyone’s definitely numb,” Shawn Green said. “To say disappointed would be the understatement of the year.”