What happened to the Braves?

After the Braves lost 4-3 to Philadelphia in 13 innings on Wednesday, completing a September collapse that matched the worst ever by a National League team, manager Fredi Gonzalez and players were left answering questions for which they had few concise answers.

Past midnight Wednesday and again Thursday morning, Gonzalez was peppered with questions that ran the gamut: What happened to the offense? Relievers worn out? Did you ever have imagine going 9-18 in September and blowing a lead of 8 1/2 games?

And a big one: Why pitch to hot-hitting Hunter Pence with runners at first and third and two out in the 13th inning of a tie game, when .196-hitting Michael Martinez was on deck?

Pence hit a bloop single to the back of the infield between first and second to bring in the go-ahead run, and Freddie Freeman grounded into a double play in the bottom of the 13th to give the Braves their fifth consecutive loss and ninth in 12 games.

Gonzalez, who had said for a couple of weeks that the Braves would eventually snap out of their funk, clinch the wild card and be better for having gone through the struggle, was faced with harsh reality late Wednesday: They didn’t snap out of it. Time ran out. Season over.

The St. Louis Cardinals won 16 of their final 21 games, including sweeping the Braves, to win the wild card and deny the Braves’ postseason bid in Gonzalez’s first season as the managerial replacement to retired icon Bobby Cox.

“Our slump combined with the Cardinals playing really good baseball in September — you’ve got a shocking situation,” said veteran third baseman Chipper Jones, who ranked it among the sourest of sour season endings he has experienced. “Having such a big lead and then sitting here after [game] No. 162 and not being in the playoffs is a tremendous disappointment.”

The Braves led the Cardinals by 10 1/2 games Aug. 25 and by 8 1/2 games Sept. 5. The Braves matched the 1964 Phillies for the dubious distinction of largest blown lead by an NL team in September.

If Boston hadn’t blown a nine-game lead Wednesday in the American League wild-card race, the Braves would have matched the major league record for largest blown lead in September.

“I think last night was probably one of the greatest nights in the history of the game of baseball. It just stinks the end we ended up on,” Braves left fielder Matt Diaz said Thursday morning, when players came to Turner Field to commiserate and clean out their lockers.

Diaz managed to maintain his sense of humor when asked about the simultaneous September collapses of the Braves and the Red Sox. “We can just say the city of Boston is cursed since that’s where we have our roots,” he said. “Pass blame. When it doubt, pass blame to the other city.”

Laugh to keep from crying, a day after the stunning finish to their once-promising season. Rookie-of-the-year candidate Craig Kimbrel gave up a run in the ninth inning for his third blown save in his last six chances, and the Braves lost after leading in the ninth inning or later for the third time in their final 20 games.

They scored three runs in 13 innings, two on Dan Uggla’s homer that staked them to a 3-1 lead in the third. They didn’t score for the last 10 innings of their season.

Three runs is about what the Braves averaged (3.1) during the fateful 7-16 stretch that began Sept. 5. They scored three runs or fewer 14 times in that 23-game slide, forcing their injury-depleted starting rotation and overworked bullpen to pitch with little or no margin for error.

“I really can’t fathom it,” Freeman said of the September swoon. “We went out there every day battling and came up on the short end of the stick. The Cardinals took care of business.”

Kimbrel tied for the NL saves lead with 46, but faltered in the final weeks. He insisted that his workload wasn’t a factor, and that emotions and adrenaline led to his giving up three walks, a hit and the tying run in the ninth inning. Kris Medlen bailed him out without further damage, getting Martinez to pop out with the bases loaded to end the ninth with the score tied.

The Braves kept it there for another three innings before veteran Scott Linebrink entered in the 13th. Brian Schneider walked with one out, and Chase Utley singled with two outs.

Linebrink got ahead in the count 1-and-2 against Pence, who took the next pitch before shattering his bat on a sinker and blooping the ball into no-man’s land for the Braves.

Gonzalez wasn’t in a mood to answer the question late Wednesday, cutting short a group interview after a string of questions about in-game strategy. Twelve hours later, after a mostly sleepless night, he fielded the question:

Why did hit pitch to Pence with Martinez on deck? Martinez left the bases loaded with an inning-ending foul pop in the ninth and stranded two with a routine fly in the 11th.

“I thought about not doing it,” Gonzalez said. “But all of a sudden you’ve got the 1-2 or 2-2 count, whatever it was. And Scotty made a great pitch. … Can you guarantee me Martinez wasn’t going to get a hit, or draw a base on balls?”

Over the coming weeks and months, there will be plenty more questions asked about a September the Braves would just as soon forget, but won’t be able to for quite some time.