LOS ANGELES - Casey Blake was running the pool and, since Joe Torre sets the lineup, he had the first pick. The Dodger manager threw 20 bucks on a table in the middle of the clubhouse and turned over a card to see which horse he would have in the Belmont Stakes later in the day.

“Mine That Bird,” Torre yelled out triumphantly, drawing a collective groan from several Dodgers.

Torre was bluffing, but no one seemed to mind. A night after the Dodgers were down to their last strike before managing to find a way to beat the Philadelphia Phillies, there was no problem with the manager having a little fun even if he actually picked last-place finisher Miner’s Escape.

The only clubhouse grumbling, in fact, was that the Dodgers had to play the Phillies in the late game Sunday at the same time the Lakers were playing Game 2 of the NBA finals just down the hill from Chavez Ravine. They would have to miss being courtside to cheer the Lakers on, and they weren’t expecting them back.

“Kobe’s hungry, man,” outfielder Matt Kemp said.

Life is good in the former Mannywood, which was rechristened Saturday as 90090, the new zip code for Dodger Stadium. Even a brief recent hitting lull hasn’t stopped the Dodgers from continuing their sprint to the best record in baseball and a huge lead in the National League West.

They won with Manny Ramirez, and they’re winning without him. The anti-Manny himself, Juan Pierre, seems reborn since replacing the dreadlocked one, his teammates keep coming up with clutch hits, and the Dodgers have been almost unbeatable in one-run games.

“Every night you don’t know who is going to get the big hit or make the big play,” first baseman James Loney said. “We’ve got a combination of guys who can all get it done.”

The shock of losing Ramirez to a 50-game suspension for using a female fertility drug seemed to throw the Dodgers off balance at first, but they’ve found ways to adjust. Their left fielder now squibs hits through the infield instead of hitting them over the fence and the guy batting cleanup (catcher Russell Martin) hasn’t hit a home run all year, but somehow they manage to get it done.

They did just that again Saturday, with Rafael Furcal hitting the first pinch-hit home run of his career in the ninth inning to tie the game, and Andre Ethier winning it with a solo blast in the 12th. The Dodgers poured out of the dugout to celebrate at home plate, improving their record to 18-11 in Ramirez’s absence.

All that with Manny being Manny somewhere else.

“We all know he’s a great player and the team is better with him,” reliever Will Ohman said. “But to say one person is a team is sorely mistaken. We have depth, we have experience, and we have young guys on the brink of stardom. That allows you to deal with a loss like this.”

What has really helped the Dodgers deal with the loss of Ramirez has been the play of Pierre, who silently chafed in his role as the expendable outfielder after Ramirez came here last season. Pierre, in the third year of a five-year, $45 million contract that a lot of Dodgers fans questioned, was hitting .370 in 28 games since taking over left field with 18 RBI and 12 steals.

Pierre remained silent Saturday, walking away when asked what his play has meant to the team. But the liabilities that frustrated fans — his lack of power and weak arm — don’t get mentioned when his teammates are asked about him.

“The guy is a career .300 hitter, he steals bags and just generally wreaks havoc,” Ohman said. “People are surprised but I don’t know why. He gives us another weapon in the top of the order, where we have a lot of speed.”

Pierre isn’t Ramirez, of course, and he’s not going to dislodge rising star Matt Kemp in center or Ethier in right. That means a trip back to the bench when Ramirez returns, with an occasional start when Torre believes one of the outfielders needs a rest.

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“Juan Pierre certainly knows the lay of the land. He knows that Manny’s coming back,” Torre said. “I sat Ethier once and Kemp twice before Manny was suspended. And I still plan on doing it, because there’s no spot for (Pierre) in reality, at this point.”

Torre believes the best team in baseball will get only better come July 3 when Ramirez is allowed back. Dodgers fans, meanwhile, don’t seem terribly outraged over what he did to get suspended, though it will take some new dramatics on the part of Ramirez to recreate the Manny mania that gripped Dodger Stadium before.

Indeed, Mannywood is gone, and the sale of fake dreadlocks has plummeted faster than the automobile market. There was barely a No. 99 jersey in the stands Saturday as evidence he was ever around.

The Dodgers can’t wait to get him back, but they’re feeling pretty good about what they’ve done while he’s been gone. When he was suspended, the feeling on the team was that they simply needed to hang on until he came back.

So far they’ve done that, and more.

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