Wolf heads Dodgers’ pack

When Manager Joe Torre addressed the Dodgers hours before the first game of the post-Manny era, the message was simple: no one can do Ramirez’s job, but the team can still win if everyone simply does his own.

Apparently, that took a week to sink in.

But now that the Dodgers have convinced themselves they’ll have to keep playing until Ramirez gets back, they decided to give their manager’s advice a shot Wednesday.

And the result -- a 9-2 victory over the World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies, the Dodgers’ first at Citizens Bank Park in nearly two seasons -- wasn’t nearly as important as how the team went about it.

With Randy Wolf giving up only three hits over six innings, eight of the nine starters contributing a hit or a run batted in, Juan Pierre stealing two bases and Matt Kemp scoring from second base on a sacrifice bunt and making two diving catches, the Dodgers played as well Wednesday as they played poorly the night before.

“It was good for us to recover from last night,” said Wolf (2-1), the former Phillie who won for the first time in a month. “For us to come out and shake it off is big.”

Whether they’ve shaken off the loss of Ramirez is still open for debate. What’s certain, though, is that even after losing four of six games since Ramirez’s 50-game suspension started, the Dodgers still have the best record (23-12) and biggest division lead (four games) in baseball.

And it might stay that way if they continue getting major contributions from two players -- Rafael Furcal and James Loney -- who have been almost as invisible as Ramirez over the last week. Furcal, two for 20 in Ramirez’s absence, matched that hit total in his first two at-bats Wednesday and Loney, batting .178 in May with a lower slugging percentage than pitchers Chad Billingsley, Jeff Weaver and Eric Stults, had four runs batted in and three hits, including his first home run of the season.

Furcal credited a call from Ramirez with helping him stay patient at the plate.

“But the best thing that happened was that we won,” Furcal said. “We’ve been going through a bad spell. Not just one. All of us.”

Especially Loney, who had only one extra-base hit in his last 15 games before keying a five-run fourth inning with a three-run home run into the first row of the right-field seats. “Take it any way you can,” Loney said. “There’s some times [teams] struggle at the same time. We were doing that for a little bit. But guys swung the bat well today.”

And then there’s Orlando Hudson, who not only inherited the No. 3 spot in the batting order Ramirez vacated, but with nine hits and six runs in the six games Ramirez has been absent, may have assumed the mantle of offensive leader as well.

Heck, Ramirez doesn’t even lead the team in homers any more. Casey Blake took that away from him when he hit his seventh in the ninth inning.

So while Ramirez isn’t forgotten, he is gone. And the Dodgers are making the best of it.

“You don’t get over a hump in one game,” Wolf said. “If we start doing that consistently, yeah you kind of get over that hump and realize we can do this without Manny, until he gets back.

“There’s no doubt you have a force like that in the lineup and he’s not there, it’s going to make an impact. But it’s our job to get through that and play the best we can until he gets back.”

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com