Manny Ramirez, left, congratulates J.D. Drew after his solo home run during the fifth inning of last night’s game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia pulled the Red Sox to within 4-2.

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AP / Tom Mihalek

PHILADELPHIA — At the time, it was humorous, almost fall-off-the-bench funny.

That was the reaction in the Red Sox’ dugout when starting pitcher Bartolo Colon took some big hacks in his first at-bat of the season, courtesy of an interleague game in a National League park, where the designated hitter is not used.

Colon loaded up and took a mighty cut, ostensibly operating under the theory that he was going to swing as hard as he could just in case the ball hit his bat.

As he swung and missed three times in his first at-bat, teammates Coco Crisp, Mike Lowell and Justin Masterson were caught on camera smiling and laughing at the futility of Colon’s actions in the batter’s box.

A short time later, it wasn’t so funny. Nor were there many laughs by the end of the night with Boston falling to the Philadelphia Phillies, 8-2, in front of a crowd of 45,026 at Citizens Bank Park.

What turned the smiles into frowns wasn’t just the loss of the game, but also the loss of Colon.

The rotund veteran right-hander had to leave after four innings — and two wildly swinging strikeouts of his own — because of a sore back.

When he exited, the Red Sox were on the short end of the Home Run Derby in the hitter-friendly ballpark, 4-2. After Mike Timlin poured some gasoline on the fire, raked for four runs in the sixth, the Sox pretty much had to kiss the game goodbye against the Phillies’ ace left-hander, Cole Hamels, whose night was marred only by back-to-back homers from Dustin Pedroia and J.D. Drew in the fifth.

Will the Sox have to say goodbye to Colon in the rotation for a while because of his injury? That is the question the Sox will face with Colon, who fell to 4-2 after serving up two homers to Ryan Howard and one to Jimmy Rollins (leading off the first), good for four runs and a 4-0 third-inning hole for Boston.

After the game, Red Sox manager Terry Francona said Colon would be further evaluated today, and Colon said through an interpreter, first-base coach Luis Alicea, that he thought he’d be able to make his next start. Colon said it is back stiffness not related to the oblique muscle issue that kept him on the sidelines earlier this season.

Still, it was the kind of situation Francona feared when interleague play in the DH-less N.L. parks was looming.

In a perfect world, Francona would be just as happy if his pitchers would stand like statues, put the bat on their shoulders, take their three strikes and go sit down so as not to hurt themselves swinging, a baseball activity that is not normal for them in the American League.

Of course, that’s not always practical, as it wasn’t when Colon came up with runners at second and third and two out in the fourth and the Sox down, 4-0. Colon whiffed — aggressively. Too aggressively, apparently. On one of his cuts, he swung so hard that the helmet fell off his head, eliciting chuckles on the bench. But he couldn’t answer the bell for the fifth.

Having pitchers hit and run the bases is a worry of all A.L. managers when their teams visit the N.L. parks. Just ask Yankees manager Joe Girardi how he feels after seeing Chien-Ming Wang suffer a foot injury while running the bases on Sunday, forcing the team’s ace right-hander out of action for a minimum of six weeks.

“There were runners on base, he’s trying to hit it, but (pitchers) are not used to that,” sighed Francona. “Sometimes that happens. Yeah, it’s certainly a concern.”

“Perhaps it was in the second at-bat, when I swung so hard my helmet flew off,” said Colon about when he thought he suffered the injury.

He didn’t regret the big hack.

“No, because I was just trying to hit the ball. I wasn’t thinking about getting hurt,” he said.

The Phillies, meanwhile, had hurt Colon by playing a little long ball. Catcher Jason Varitek said he didn’t think the small park had anything to do with the homers, adding that Colon never seemed to get a consistent feel for what he was trying to do. Colon’s velocity has slipped, too.

“He wasn’t quite as strong as he has been,” said Varitek.

Colon wasn’t the only one with command issues. Timlin was rocked. This was not a case of ground balls finding holes. This was your basic chuck-and-duck outing.

“Mike’s cutter wasn’t cutting. He couldn’t get the ball down,” said Varitek. “I don’t know exactly what it was, but he had a tough outing.”

Timlin, who has allowed 40 baserunners (29 hits, 11 walks) in 21 2/3 innings as his earned-run average has soared to 7.06, wasn’t available to comment on last night’s disaster. Francona tried to analyze the sinkerballer’s troubles.

“Sometimes when he wants to get the ball down, he’s trying to do it with his upper body, trying to force the pitch down,” said Francona. “When he does that he loses command and some life on the ball and leaves it over the middle.”

All in all, a tough night at the ballpark for the Red Sox, who fell to 2-2 on the trip, with two games remaining against the Phillies.

skrasner@projo.com