The New York Yankees get a great big 'Wet Willie' after a miserable 2-5 week against the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Mets.

They did not pitch well -- starters or relievers. They did not hit well most of the time. They did not field particularly well. They just did not look very good.

Manager Joe Girardi played Master of the Obvious in summing it all up.

"We've had better weeks, I think you could definitely say that." He listed what he described as a "multitude of problems," including a fallback in starting pitching, bullpen issues and an inability to hit in the clutch.

"If you push the panic button every time you have a bad week, you'd probably push it more than once," Girardi said. "We just haven't played particularly well. . . . Obviously we want to get back to winning series after series and playing better."

It sure would help the beaten-up Yankees if some of their highly-paid superstars would start getting the job done.

This was the week the Yankees re-opened the playoff door for the Red Sox, fortified the confidence of the Rays and helped save Jerry Manuel's job.

All because this was the week the Yankees raised so many worrisome questions about themselves.

The older players played old. The magic began to erode from pleasant surprises such as Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli. Mark Teixeira reverted to April form. In a bizarro turn around the rotation, only Javier Vazquez pitched well. Even Mariano Rivera was a sore spot in an unsteady bullpen.

In a New York-New York weekend, the Yanks got David Wright going on Saturday, Jason Bay going last night and left not only having lost two of three, but with the Mets closer to first place than the defending champions. If the Subway Series lasted one more day, Manuel was going to end up with a contract extension.

The Yanks have to ask now if this was a bad blip or somehow reflective of real problems. They are now six games out of first and the Red Sox -- while still in fourth place -- have won five of six since rallying Tuesday against the Yanks. They are finally pitching as expected, hitting well enough to devastate Roy Halladay yesterday and are within 2½ games of the Yanks.

So much for that two-team race in the AL East.

This is not about panic. This about Jorge Posada, Curtis Granderson, Nick Johnson and Alfredo Aceves on the DL. This is about none of the big offseason moves (Vazquez, Granderson, Johnson, Chan Ho Park or Randy Winn) playing well. This is about the Core Four looking their age. This is about the No. 2 hole in the lineup becoming a sinkhole. This is about Jeter's limited range and Girardi's limited bullpen choices.

Maybe it is just a bad week. Or maybe the Subway was the latest revelation of a strong team going a bit off the rails.

So, how concerned are you at this point? Was this just a bad week, or have some problems popped up you aren't sure the Yankees have solutions for?