BOSTON — Julian Tavarez’s troubles continue to mount and he’s not alone.

The Boston Red Sox dropped their second game in a row to the Kansas City Royals, losing, 6-5, at Fenway Park last night.

Just in case anyone is keeping track, the Yankees won their fifth straight, beating Toronto to cut the Sox’ lead to seven games in the A.L. East.

Tavarez has struggled in his last few outings and has not lasted more than six innings in his last five starts. Because of his recent subpar performances, it’ll make things interesting when Curt Schilling (shoulder tendinitis) returns to the rotation. Because rookie Kason Gabbard has been successful in his two brief stints with Boston this season, including his current one, it’s possible Tavarez could be shifted to the bullpen and replaced with the young southpaw in that fifth spot when Schilling returns.

Pawtucket pitcher Jon Lester could also be an option. He worked seven innings for the PawSox last night against Ottawa, allowing three runs on seven hits to improve to 4-5 in his comeback from cancer.

Tavarez cruised through the first three innings of the game last night, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced.

“The first time through the order he was very good,” said Red Sox manager Terry Francona. “He was the Julian we’ve seen for the majority of the year. The second time through the order, his location — it seemed like it abandoned him. He was living on one side of the plate and all of a sudden they were getting hits in a hurry.”

Tavarez allowed two runs in the top of the fourth inning, but the Red Sox responded with four in the bottom half for a 4-2 advantage. Then the wheels came off in the top of the fifth as the Royals scored four runs against Tavarez.

“I changed my game plan,” he said. “I wasn’t attacking hitters. It’s hard to figure out what happened because it happened so quickly.”

Tavarez isn’t the only one to blame here.

The Red Sox have been too inconsistent at the plate of late, especially with runners in scoring position. Even Francona said as much during his pregame meeting with the media yesterday. Boston has failed to come up with the big hit in crucial spots and last night was no different.

With the Sox trailing by a run in the bottom of the eighth inning, Coco Crisp laced a two-out triple but was left stranded 90 feet away when Julio Lugo popped out to center field.

“No one cares about one loss,” said Crisp. “We’re in first place by a lot and overall we still have the best winning percentage. If you start pressing when you’re in first place with the best record in baseball, it makes no sense.

“If we keep winning one and losing one, anything’s possible,” added Crisp. “But if we were 10 games behind them, we could catch them, too. We’re that good.”

Sox slugger Manny Ramirez has yet to get hot this season, but when Tarvarez pitches, he seems to play better.

It’s no secret that Ramirez and Tavarez are buenos amigos. The pair’s on-field and off-field antics are regularly televised, laughed about and talked about.

Since Tavarez was turned into a starting pitcher this season and placed into the fifth spot in the rotation, it seems like Ramirez gives a little more of an effort every fifth day when his friend toes the rubber. That was quite evident in the first inning last night when the Sox’ left fielder made a tremendous catch on the first play of the game, robbing the Royals’ David DeJesus of a hit and possibly extra bases.

What made Ramirez’s play interesting was that he recently had been criticized for playing too shallow.

But last night he was playing a little deeper and gave more of an effort. On Tuesday, with Tim Wakefield on the mound, Ramirez was too shallow on a ball hit in the fourth inning and allowed two runs to score.

Call it a conspiracy theory, but the naked eye sees Ramirez in a different light when Tavarez pitches.

Despite the Sox’ loss last night, Ramirez went 2-for-4, including a solo home run. In fact, he’s hitting .323 (20-for-62) with 17 RBI and six homers in Tavarez’s 18 starts this season.

After the pitcher’s record dropped to 5-8, he placed the blame on himself and not what Ramirez or the rest of the team did.

“Manny makes a lot of nice catches out there and he’s been helping the team with the bat, too,” said Tavarez. “Manny is one of the best players in the second half of the season and proves what type of player he is. He makes good plays, hits home runs and RBI; he’s been doing everything. If I can go out and pitch six or seven innings with two or three runs, I should be able to win some games because my team is scoring runs for me.”

Ramirez didn’t only have a chance to help out his friend last night, he also had a chance to make things interesting for the Red Sox in the bottom of the ninth inning. But with two outs, he popped out to shallow right field.

jmcdonal@projo.com