Dodgers: Cubs win their second in a row with L.A. manager missing, 6-4. Candiotti suffers through another short outing.

Without their manager, but with rattled senses, the Dodgers packed up their stuff and hit the road late Wednesday night on the heels of a two-game home tumble to the Chicago Cubs.

Hours after learning that Tom Lasorda would be out indefinitely after suffering a minor heart attack earlier this week and undergoing angioplasty surgery Wednesday, the Dodgers dropped a 6-4 game to the Cubs before 35,200 at Dodger Stadium.

With a key stretch of games starting today in Denver against West Division opponents and protecting a two-game lead atop the division, it was their second loss in two games without Lasorda, who also missed Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to Chicago.

Were the Dodgers thinking about their manager?

“You know him. I can’t believe we can’t hear him yelling all the way over here,” interim manager Bill Russell said before the game.

Executive Vice President Fred Claire said that his first-place team has already shown that it can keep its focus after having gone through Brett Butler’s cancer diagnosis and surgery.

Claire was at a clubhouse meeting to inform the players of Lasorda’s condition.

“The main thing we told the team is to maintain the focus they’ve had,” Claire said Wednesday afternoon. “They’ve gone through several things. What happened to Brett Butler was difficult for the team, too.

“But we’ve got a lot of experienced players, very professional players, and they know how to set certain emotions aside and play the games.”

The Dodgers--and starter Tom Candiotti (5-7)--fell behind early, rallied to tie it, then saw Chicago pull away with two ninth-inning runs, including a leadoff triple by shortstop Jose Hernandez, who scored on a throwing error by Dodger shortstop Greg Gagne.

Cub starter Jaime Navarro (6-7) was shaky early but lasted 6 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on six hits and striking out six.

Back-to-back hits by Mike Bowers and Todd Hollandsworth against Cub reliever Terry Adams resulted in one run--scored on Gagne’s ground ball--but pinch-hitter Terry Kirby grounded to second and Delino DeShields flied to center on consecutive pitches to end the game.

Candiotti, who gave up two runs in the second and two in the fourth, got knocked around early for the second consecutive outing. In his last appearance, against the Astros, Candiotti gave up six runs on nine hits in 2 1/3 innings, and in his last two appearances he has given up 17 hits and 10 runs in 6 1/3 innings.

Candiotti lasted four innings, giving up eight hits and four runs.

In the second inning, Candiotti gave up two-out doubles to Ryne Sandberg and Hernandez, sandwiched around a Scott Servais single, as the Cubs took a 2-0 lead.

Dodger first baseman Eric Karros answered with a home run to lead off the second against Navarro. Raul Mondesi, who sat out the previous four games because of to a sore left heel, followed that with a double, then was singled home by Hollandsworth to tie the score.

But the bottom of the Cub batting order got to Candiotti again in the fourth, when he gave up consecutive hits to Leo Gomez, Sandberg and Servais, resulting in two more Chicago runs.

In the bottom of the fourth, Blowers doubled off of Sammy Sosa’s glove in right field and was singled home by Hollandsworth, to cut the Chicago lead to 4-3.