Atlanta ? Once again, the Atlanta Braves didn’t get a chance to celebrate together.

The Braves clinched their 12th straight division championship Thursday, winning the NL East when the Philadelphia Phillies rallied for a 5-4 victory over the Florida Marlins.

The players had hoped for a chance to win the division on the field after beating Montreal, 14-4, Wednesday. But the Braves had an off day, and second-place Florida was mathematically eliminated from the division race with its loss to the Phillies.

“It’s always great to be able to celebrate together,” 19-game winner Russ Ortiz said in a telephone interview from his home. “I wouldn’t say it’s disappointing, but this isn’t how you would want to do it if you had a choice.”

Ortiz learned of the division championship by checking the Internet. Last year, the Braves won the East in similar fashion, clinching on an off day after missing a chance to win it on the field.

The Marlins hold a half-game lead over Philadelphia in the wild-card race. Florida opens a four-game series in Atlanta tonight.

“I know the guys, because it happened this way last year, wanted to get an opportunity to celebrate,” said Ortiz, who’s in his first season with the Braves. “It’s important to share that part of the game with each other.”

But that’s a minor complaint after the Braves extended their record for consecutive first-place finishes. The streak that began in 1991 when Atlanta won the NL West and capped a worst-to-first season by reaching the World Series for the first time since 1958.

No other team in professional sports has won more than nine straight division titles.

Ortiz said manager Bobby Cox “deserves a ton of credit. He’s the big reason why guys love to play here and why his teams keeping winning.”

The Braves moved to the NL East in 1994 and trailed the Montreal Expos by six games when the strike stopped the season in August.

In 1995, Atlanta won the division by 21 games over the New York Mets, then beat the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.

That’s the only Series title during the run. The Braves lost to the wild-card San Francisco Giants in the first round of the playoffs last season.