BOSTON — It’s not that the Red Sox don’t miss David Ortiz. How could they not miss the player who has arguably been the game’s best run producer over the last five seasons?

It’s just that, in the short-term, they seem to be surviving quite nicely without him. Since Ortiz left the lineup with a wrist injury eight days ago, the Red Sox have yet to skip a beat offensively.

Without Ortiz, the Sox are 5-2 following their 11-3 thumping of the Seattle Mariners yesterday. More to the point, they have averaged exactly six runs per game in Ortiz’s absence. Take away Friday’s loss, when the Sox were uncharacteristically flat and sloppy while being shut out, and that figure improves to seven runs per contest.

“David is so important to what we do,” said manager Terry Francona, “but it’s really gratifying — and I think the players feel the same way — doing something when you don’t have one of your big guns out there, finding ways to do it. We’re using everybody; nobody’s sitting around feeling like they’re not doing anything. And that’s a good way to win.”

It helps, of course, that J.D. Drew, who has occupied the slugger’s customary No. 3 spot in the batting order, is riding one of the hottest streaks of his career. In his last seven games, Drew is hitting .542 (13-for-24), elevating his average to .318.

In five plate appearances yesterday, Drew scalded the ball each time — tripling in the first, lining to short in the third, lining to second in the fourth, homering in the sixth and singling in the eighth — and in his manager’s estimation, could have easily had a five-hit game.

As it was, Drew did plenty of damage, knocking in two runs and scoring three.

“It was a nice day,” said Drew. “It’s a matter of just seeing the ball well and hitting it hard. That’s what you try to do every day. I don’t think I’m changing a lot. I’m just not missing my pitch when I get it.

Over the course of his career, Drew has enjoyed success hitting third. In 331 games in that spot before yesterday, he owned a .304 career average — tying his batting average in the No. 5 hole — while his power numbers (67 homers, 201 RBI and a .958 OPS) are also far better than any other spot in the batting order.

“I don’t think I’m filling Ortiz’s shoes,” cautioned Drew. “I’m just going out and doing the things I can do. I’m not doing anything different. I don’t think my approach changes. My approach is set, regardless of where I am in the batting order.”

“We have a pretty good No. 3 hitter (in Ortiz),” said Francona. “I think it’s fortunate for us that [Drew] has started to heat up right when David went down. That’s a tough hole to fill if you don’t have somebody hitting in that spot.”

No doubt, hitting in front of Manny Ramirez — as Ortiz usually does — has helped Drew’s cause this week. Ramirez yesterday hammered a pitch over everything in left, giving him five homers in his last seven games and six in the last 10.

Ramirez is in the middle of a 12-game hitting streak, during which he’s batting .391 (18-for-46) with 19 RBI. Since belting his milestone 500th career homer in Baltimore last weekend, Ramirez, unburdened by expectation and history, has four homers in his last six games and is averaging two RBI per game.

Yesterday, everybody else hit, too, as the Sox banged out 13 hits. Coco Crisp and Alex Cora got two hits apiece and Kevin Youkilis, who had been hitting only .208 in his last 14 games, banged out two hits, too.

The Sox scored in five of their eight innings never trailed.

After the Mariners answered with two runs in the third, the Sox retook the lead in the fourth and never trailed.

smcadam@projo.com