BALTIMORE — The change of venue didn’t change the Boston Red Sox’ fortunes.

Once again they got off to a fast start, but still they wound up on the losing end, falling to the Baltimore Orioles, 5-4, in a game filled with dramatic twists and turns last night at Camden Yards.

It was Boston’s fourth loss in the last five games, dropping the Red Sox to 4-5 on this road trip, with only this afternoon’s game against the Orioles remaining.

Boston now has lost three in a row, the previous two setbacks coming in Minnesota, and don’t look now, but the Red Sox are in second place, looking up at the Tampa Bay Rays atop the American League East standings.

And Boston is looking depleted personnel-wise.

The Sox were missing manager Terry Francona, who was in Arizona for a family funeral. During the game, they lost outfielders J.D. Drew (sprained left wrist) and Coco Crisp (excruciating headache, nausea), necessitating the use of Jacoby Ellsbury (bruised left knee), not to mention the deployment of infielder Kevin Youkilis in right field.

A 3-0 first-inning lead melted into a 5-3 deficit, thanks to an uncharacteristically rough start by ace Josh Beckett.

As is their nature, though, the Red Sox battled. They pulled to within one run on an RBI single by Alex Cora in the eighth. There were more fireworks in the ninth, when David Ortiz was rung up by plate umpire Laz Diaz on a close checked-swing, strike-three call on a high-and-tight 3-and-2 pitch from George Sherrill.

Ortiz protested and, without any apparent malice, dropped his bat at Diaz’s feet, prompting Diaz to throw him out of the game, unbeknownst to Ortiz until he was ordered to leave the dugout before the plate umpire would allow the game to continue.

Then George Sherrill finished off the Sox for his 14th save.

“It’s a long season,” said a philosophical Manny Ramirez. “You have to tip your cap to them.”

Ramirez had to do some cap-tipping of a personal nature in the seventh inning.

In retrospect, the Red Sox lost the game in that inning when the injury-wracked, illness-plagued, bumped and bruised Sox had the right man up at the right time.

The bases were filled in the seventh. There were none out. And the Red Sox were trailing by two runs.

At the plate, a locked-in Ramirez. On the mound, rookie right-hander Jim Johnson.

The duel was intense. After a first pitch swing-and-miss at a curveball, Johnson kept trying to throw one of his 94-96 mph fastballs past Ramirez. Ramirez kept fouling them off. Johnson tried mixing in a curveball. Ramirez fouled that off, too.

The count went to 2-and-2. The crowd of 38,768, a sizable portion of which was rooting for the Red Sox, was buzzing in anticipation. The drama kept building through nine pitches.

Who would blink first?

The future Hall of Famer? Or the rookie pitcher?

Surprise — it was Johnson who bested Ramirez in the duel on the 10th pitch of the at-bat.

And he won the battle in the best possible way for the Orioles, on a broken-bat comebacker that Johnson turned into a home-to-first double play. The rally officially fizzled when Mike Lowell flied to left, keeping it a 5-3 game.

“It was a quality at-bat for Manny,” said acting manager Brad Mills. “He battled. (Johnson) made some good pitches. Manny hung in there. Then (Johnson) made another good pitch and Manny fought it off, but it went back to the pitcher.”

Ramirez relished the confrontation, though the outcome didn’t go his way.

“That’s why you play the game. You like to compete. I was seeing the ball good. He made some good pitches. He’s got great stuff. Sometimes you get them, sometimes they get you,” said Ramirez, who added he shattered his bat “into 20 pieces.”

The loss was pinned on Beckett, and he deserved it.

For the second night in a row the Red Sox squandered a 3-0 first-inning lead.

On Monday night it was rookie Clay Buchholz who frittered away that early advantage en route to a disappointing, 4 1/3-inning, seven-run outing in a 7-3 loss.

While rookies can be unpredictable, it isn’t expected that World Series heroes can look like rookies sometimes. But that was Beckett’s fate.

He gave one run back in the second on three two-out singles, and then surrendered four more runs in the third, on a two-out RBI single by former Sox player Kevin Millar and a majestic three-run homer over the high wall in right by Luke Scott. And just like that, his 3-0 bulge had turned into a 5-3 deficit.

Beckett lasted only 5 2/3 innings, allowing 11 hits, the most given up by a Red Sox starting pitcher this season.

“They were all tough innings,” said Beckett, clearly upset with himself. “I threw 104 pitches (97, actually) and I only executed one. The loss is on the right man. If you execute pitches you get outs. If you don’t execute pitches, you don’t get outs.”

And the pitch to Scott that sent the Orioles on their way to the win?

“It was a [terrible] pitch, right down the middle,” snapped Beckett.

skrasner@projo.com