The press dining room in the bowels of Yankee Stadium has always been sort of a wall-to-wall gallery of moments from the Yankees' past, with framed photos of Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, the Babe, Joe D. -- all the people you'd imagine should be there. There was a big poster of Don Mattingly and Hal Chase, for example, and more recently, there was a display of the new stadium and the 3D models of what it would look like. This was also the room where the postgame news conferences were held during the playoffs.

So imagine the surprise today when I came down the steps from the press entrance and it was all gone -- just bare white walls and the dusty outlines of where the photos had been. It was a pretty jarring sight. Apparently the photos were removed sometime on Monday -- so for the six games that are left to go here in the Bronx, the dinners and brunches will be a little less picturesque, shall we say.

News updates from the Stadium: Robinson Cano is back in the lineup after a heart-to-heart talk with Joe Girardi. "I think Robbie is ready to be great again," Girardi said. ... Hideki Matsui will postpone his surgery until at least after the Yankees' final game on Sunday. "For me, it's going to be a very special day," Matsui said. "I'd like to be able to play."

Joba Chamberlain replied to Jorge Posada's assessment of his ability to stay injury-free yesterday at the Stadium and said, essentially, he's tired of the whole debate.

Then Wilson Betemit came through with the big hit off the bench and Mariano Rivera passed Lee Smith for second place on the all-time saves list as the Yankees won the seventh-to-last game at the Stadium.

Hey, if there'd been a few more games like these along the way, the postseason outlook wouldn't be quite so dire. In any event, they did it without Robinson Cano, whose inclusion in the lineup will be a day-to-day decision, according to Joe Girardi.

My bet is that Cano makes it back into the lineup tonight, though -- Girardi had a message to send and Cano seemed to have received it loud and clear, wearing his jacket pullover on the bench in the early innings last night.

The Yankees are creating so much news lately that it's pushing stories off the main yankees.com page too fast. Here's a couple you might have also missed from Monday: I answered questions in a Mailbag - the first one is about Cano - and Samantha Newman checked in with Jim Abbott. Down in Oklahoma City, Kevin T. Czerwinski reports that Ian Kennedy just wants a little love.

Jorge Posada taped a YES 'CenterStage' this morning in New York and was into the 'Hit and Run' word association segment with host Michael Kay when the name Joba Chamberlain came up. Posada's immediate response was very telling: "Keep him in the bullpen."

Pressed for a follow-up, Posada explained, "If you start him for 200 innings, he's not going to be able to. You're going to lose him. He's going to get hurt. I don't see him as a starter."

Posada said he expects to be catching on Opening Day at the new Stadium, not playing first base or DHing. He also called for the Yankees to acquire one or two of the top-flight free agent starting pitchers on the market -- hello, CC Sabathia and A.J. Burnett ... and toss Ben Sheets into the conversation as well. 

"Let's get the pitching first and then fill in the holes," Posada told Kay. "With the lineup we have, if we get a five-man rotation, we'll be fine."

The full episode airs on Sept. 28 after the Yankees' final regular season game.

The Yankees have not officially decided what they'll do with Chamberlain in 2009, but if the plan is to make him a starter -- and the organization has repeatedly said that's how they see him -- he will have to follow a program much like he did in 2008 and transition into the rotation at midseason. 

The Yankees know how to make news like no other. On top of their victory over the Rays, taking two out of three in the series, Derek Jeter tied Lou Gehrig for the most career hits at the Stadium, taking David Price deep over the wall in right-center for the record-tying hit.

Jeter deservedly got a curtain call for that achievement and, with seven games remaining on the homestand, almost certainly will pass Gehrig at some point this week. Talk about finding a stroke -- Jeter needed nine hits to catch Gehrig and he got them all in three games.

Jeter had his A-game going, but it wasn't all smiles. In fact, Robinson Cano was downright sheepish after Joe Girardi pulled him from the game for not hustling after Cliff Floyd's double in the fourth inning. It looked bad live and it looked even worse from the dugout, you'd imagine.

Girardi has continually defended Cano even when his approach has appeared bad, and this may have been the boiling point. Cano said that he was embarrassed. This could be a turning point for Robinson. He can take it as a wake-up call or he can fall deeper into the doghouse.

For comedic effect (we think?), Carl Pavano wanted to know what the big deal was as he left a game in the sixth inning with a stiff left hip. The crowd certainly thought a Pavano injury was noteworthy -- though no one seems to believe it's all that serious and Pavano was not set for tests. Finally, Mariano Rivera tied a big name and is trying to savor the final days at the ballpark. You can read into that first quote what you will.

That's an awful lot of writing for one day.

 NEW YORK - Derek Jeter tied Lou Gehrig for the most all-time hits in Yankee Stadium with 1,269, hitting a solo home run off the Rays' David Price in the fifth inning on Sunday.

With 10 games to go in Yankee Stadium's final homestand, Jeter caught the Iron Horse with seven to spare. Jeter stroked three hits in each game of a day-night doubleheader on Saturday and then drilled another three in a Sunday afternoon game against the Rays.

Jeter singled in the first inning and scored on Alex Rodriguez's grand slam, then doubled in the second inning and scored on Jason Giambi's two-run home run. The first two hits Sunday came off of Rays starter Edwin Jackson; the hit to tie Gehrig came on a 2-2 pitch to right-center field, his 11th home run of the season.

The 34-year-old Jeter was called out of the dugout and doffed his batting helmet for a curtain call. His cause was helped by numerous afternoons just like the ones he enjoyed this weekend. His 119 career games with three or more hits at Yankee Stadium are the most all-time, while his 18 games with at least four hits are one shy of Gehrig's Yankee Stadium mark of 19.

As Xavier Nady said heading out the door last night, "See you guys in a couple of hours!" Well, here we are.

-- Phil Hughes has been announced as Wednesday's starter against the White Sox, in news that should be no surprise to anyone. Hughes struck out 12 in five innings to help the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Yankees clinch the Governor's Cup, which he said is really a lot like the Stanley Cup. The players don't get to drink out of this one, though, and that's probably for good reason. As Hughes said, "It's really old and falling apart."

-- Look who's back! Chien-Ming Wang played catch on the field before Sunday's game. It's a good sign, Joe Girardi said, but not all that significant in his timetable. The Yankees are expecting Wang to be ready to go for Opening Day '09 or thereabouts.

-- Alex Rodriguez still has some stiffness in his neck and isn't ready to play the field. A-Rod will DH while Cody Ransom heads back out to third base, trying to get over watching his batting average plummet from .750 to .500 with yesterday's doubleheader.

Now, for a couple of personal items: Kickoff over at the Meadowlands is at 4:15 p.m., is it not? Gang Green vs. the Tom Brady-less New England Patriots seems like a draw to me. ...

Headed over to the multiplex on Friday to see Righteous Kill. A movie with Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino couldn't possibly be bad, could it? Wrong. This one's a wait-for-DVD snoozer; one review I read said, "Thoroughly mediocre." I'm on board with that.

I'm looking forward much more to seeing Samuel L. Jackson play the neighbor from hell in Lakeview Terrace. First pitch 1:05 p.m.

... the Yankees will try, try again tonight by sending Sidney Ponson out opposite Matt Garza. It's incredible to watch the stadium crew hustle to make sure all the garbage from Game 1 disappears in a quick fashion. Two hours before game time, it looks good to go.

Here's a glaring stat to chew on -- the Yankees have logged an incredible 47 games this season when they have scored two runs or less, losing 36 of those contests. As Mike Mussina said, "That really makes it tough. You've got to pitch lights out."

The epitaph on this Yankees season, once it's eventually all hammered out, will show that they simply didn't score enough. There were too many inconsistencies with runners in scoring position, and except for a few run-scoring spurts here and there, they looked nothing like the team that scored a Major League-leading 968 runs in 2007.

See the picture at right. I know, I know.

Here's a couple of items of interest: Derek Jeter was 3-for-4 and is now just six hits shy of Lou Gehrig's Yankee Stadium record of 1,269.  With nine home games remaining, Jeter could wrap this up by the time the Rays leave town, but more likely with the White Sox.

Mussina passed Cy Young by striking out seven, giving him 2,800 of his career and overtaking sole possession of 19th place on baseball's all time list. Mussina gets baseball history better than most, so he pointed out that Young also threw nearly twice as many innings (7,354 2/3) as he did (3,545 2/3). That's the Stanford math paying off once again.

The Yankees have recalled RHPs Phil Hughes and Dave Robertson from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the newly minted champions of the International League. One would hope that they weren't out celebrating too late last night, especially since Robertson is expected to be in uniform for this afternoon's game against the Rays here at the Stadium.

We're all settling in for a long day of baseball here in the Bronx. Mike Mussina gets the ball for game one and Sidney Ponson draws the call for game two as the Yankees get ready to try and play spoiler ... and help out the Red Sox?

Not sure how that all works, but in any event, the Yankees will take the field and try to win some games here as the final homestand of the stadium opens up. It seems like Joe Girardi and Derek Jeter are the only ones voicing some hope about the playoffs anymore -- the Yankees' chances of making the postseason, by the way, are down to 0.1%.

It's Girardi's job to remain positive, and making the playoffs are all that Jeter knows in his career. Deep down, he may just believe that the Yankees are still going to pull this off. Still, you can't like those odds.

In a shorter story on MLB.com, we examined some of the mechanical adjustments Kevin Long hopes to make with Robinson Cano this off-season in the Dominican Republic.

I suggested to K-Long that it sounds like he's making Cano his top priority for the winter, and the hitting coach did not dispute it.

"Look at the rest of the guys in this room and they've had decent years," Long said. "Robbie has underachieved and we need to get him to be more consistent - to be an All-Star caliber player every single year. And he's capable of doing that. The sky is the limit, it really is."

Cano believes that his contract has made him something of a target for observers disappointed with the Yankees' struggles.

"People always talk. They always look for something," Cano said. "They never say you work hard or you're a great player. They're always going to say the bad stuff on the radio. That way, they can make their shows. That's the way they're using me right now. I'm the one that they say something about."

Some have suggested that Cano's troubles can be traced to the departure of coach Larry Bowa, who traveled west to join Joe Torre's Los Angeles Dodgers. The early-morning workouts that Cano and Bowa shared were extensive, and Bowa was willing to get into Cano's ear or offer a swift kick in the rear end, depending on which was needed.

Recently, Cano admitted that he misses Bowa and said the two have spoken by telephone off and on. But Long believes that the Yankees' current coaching staff is able to get through to Cano as well. When presented with criticism that Bowa's departure may be partially responsible, Long said, "That's a cop-out. One guy doesn't make or break anybody."

"There's got to be an urgency, though," Long said. "There's got to be something that drives. OK, he got his money and he got the contract. Now, where do I go that I'm going to find something to drive me to get me over the top -- to be where Dustin Pedroia is, where Ian Kinsler is? People are talking to him in the clubhouse, other players and the coaches, saying, 'What can we do to drive you to be the best?'"

The Yankees' long road journey is about to come to an end here at the Big A, and, under normal circumstances, they'd be pretty happy with their trip if Andy Pettitte can outduel Dustin Moseley. That would give them a 6-4 trip, and ideally you want to play .500 or better on the road.

But the Yankees needed to play about .900 on this trip -- maybe even 1.000 -- because of the small margin for error they created for themselves. They've seen some good things happen on this trip, like taking two of three in Tampa Bay and Alfredo Aceves' very impressive big league starting debut last night, but not nearly enough.

It's difficult to imagine that the Yankees are heading home for the final homestand at Yankee Stadium, but so be it, here it is. There was nothing but breakfast food to be found so I wandered out to the right-field bleachers in search of some lunch. I found some but suffice it to say, this photograph from my cell phone was the best part of the haul.

Assorted notes that actually have to do with baseball: Ivan Rodriguez has decided not to appeal his two-game suspension and will begin serving it immediately ... Still no word on Edwar Ramirez's three-game ban, though it'll happen when the Yankees get back to New York. ... Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and Trenton both won last night ... I'd forgotten the visiting clubhouse here at Angel Stadium had an arcade machine. I'd recognize that RBI Baseball music anywhere ...  First pitch to be thrown at 3:35 p.m. ET.