BOSTON — It’s hard to tell if Manny Ramirez ever feels any pressure.

He’s as happy-go-lucky a player as you’ll find in the game. He makes an out, he just shrugs it off. He’ll just tip his cap and get the pitcher the next time. No big deal.

Getting to the 500-homer plateau, though, has been a big deal. Maybe for the first time in a long time, Ramirez is feeling pressure as he approaches the milestone.

The Red Sox left fielder entered the season needing only 10 homers to reach the magic 500 level. And he got off to a sizzling start. Over his first 19 games, Ramirez clubbed 6 homers in 73 at-bats, bringing his total to 496.

But since April 19, when he clouted number 496 at home against Texas, Ramirez has been going through a homer drought.

Over his last 97 at-bats, Ramirez has hit only two homers, inching his total to 498. It took him 56 at-bats to hit 497, though only 19 more for 498.

His extra-base power has been missing, too. Again, since that homer on April 19, Ramirez has only seven extra-base hits, the two homers and five doubles.

His average has been taking a big dip, too. On April 25, Ramirez was batting .370, tops in the league. Since then, Ramirez is batting only .203 in 21 games, dropping his overall average to .292.

He doesn’t look the least bit settled in the batter’s box. He’s jumping at pitches and when he hits them, he isn’t consistently driving them. He’s even uncharacteristically chasing pitches out of the strike zone.

Last night, Ramirez fanned three times and hit a shallow fly ball to right.

Is he trying to hit homers? Does that explain his funk? Is the banner on the base of the light tower in left field, which shows the numbers 4-9-8, ready to be counted down to 5-0-0, too much of a reminder for Ramirez as it stares down at him while he patrols left field. Or does it catch Ramirez’s eyes when he steps into the batter’s box? Is it possible that even Manny Ramirez feels pressure every now and then?

Dominating again

About 10 days ago, Jonathan Papelbon was bemoaning the fact that he wasn’t finishing his pitches, lacking the late life for strikeouts, a problem that resulted in a pair of blown saves on the last road trip.

At that point, the Sox’ flamethrowing closer had fanned only one of his last 25 batters.

He worked on his mechanics, though. And last night’s performance, his fourth since the back-to-back blown saves, was as dominant as any of his saves.

Papelbon fanned three of the four batters he faced in notching his 13th save, preserving Justin Masterson’s first big-league win. Over his last four appearances, Papelbon has punched out six of the 16 batters he has faced.

Last night was especially impressive because it wasn’t just his fastball that served as a strikeout pitch. His slider, a pitch he has been working on, was unhittable.

Papelbon was called in with the bases filled and two outs in the eighth. He got ahead of Billy Butler at 1 and 2, then threw a nasty slider with excellent down-and-away action. Butler feebly waved at and missed the pitch, leaving the bases loaded.

In the ninth, Papelbon picked up two more whiffs. He blazed a 96-mph fastball past John Buck’s swing for the second out, and then pinch-hitter Miguel Olivo was unable to catch up to a high 97-mph heater for the final out.

Lugo’s shortcoming

The next time Julio Lugo makes a play going to his left for a grounder up the middle, it might be the first time.

Lugo has a way of giving any ground ball to his left the T-Rex arm. He turns his body to a 45-degree angle toward center field and goes into more of a slide than a dive, severely cutting down his reach. The approach limits his range.

There was another demonstration of this shortcoming in the seventh inning last night.

Mark Teahen was at second base with two outs when Buck hit a ground ball up the middle. Lugo went into his slide/dive and failed to even get leather on the ball, which rolled into center field for a run-scoring hit that cut Boston’s lead to 2-1.

Maybe Lugo couldn’t have fielded the ball, gotten up and thrown out Buck, though he is a slow-running catcher. But at the very least, on this ball, with a basic all-out dive that you see most infielders make, Lugo should have been able to knock the ball down and keep Teahen from scoring.

Youk’s heads-up play

Kevin Youkilis is by no means one of the fastest runners on the Red Sox. Yet the Boston first baseman is one of the team’s better baserunners, as he showed in the second inning.

Youkilis was running at first with one out. On the 2-and-2 pitch to J.D. Drew, Youkilis bounced out to his secondary lead. Drew hit a line drive up the middle.

When he saw the ball clear the second baseman’s head, Youkilis took off. Seeing how Kansas City center fielder David DeJesus was playing and how he approached the ball, Youkilis made up his mind to try for third. He made an aggressive turn at second and raced easily into third. Moments later, he scored the game’s first run.

Not a smooth move

What was he thinking?

That was the thought that had to have crossed the mind of Kansas City manager Trey Hillman as he saw Alex Gordon make a terrible baserunning mistake.

With a runner at first and two outs in the third inning, and the Royals already down, 2-0, Gordon ripped a base hit to left-center. Gordon steamed around first base and was at least one-third of the way to second base as the weak-armed Coco Crisp fielded the ball and threw a rainbow to second base.

Dustin Pedroia caught the looping throw from Crisp, whirled and fired a strike to Youkilis, who slapped the tag on the embarrassed Gordon.

skrasner@projo.com