Javier Baez drove in three runs and Addison Russell hit his second home run in two nights as the Chicago Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 and moved to within one victory of a World Series berth.

Jon Lester threw seven innings and gave up one run, and in a bit of numerical symmetry he threw 108 pitches as he moved the Cubs to within one win of their first World Series berth in 71 years.

After the Chicago Cubs’ offense exploded for 10 runs in a victory on Wednesday night, the team started Game 5 of the NLCS strong as they battle the Los Angeles Dodgers to take control of the series. 

Lead-off hitter Dexter Fowler singled to center field to start the game, and when Anthony Rizzo came up, Joe Maddon put on a hit-and-run play. It worked out to perfection, as Rizzo hammered a double into the right field corner and scored Fowler to give the Cubs a 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately for the Cubs, that's all they could manage, as Javier Baez and Jason Heyward both struck out to end the frame with just one run crossing the plate.

Jon Lester's pitching performance in the early part of the game was shaky at times, but he managed to pitch out of several jams. With runners on the corners and two outs, Lester induced a weak groundout from Howie Kendrick in the first, and then in the third the hurler stranded Justin Turner at second base as he struck out Corey Seager to end the inning.

In the top of the fourth inning, the Cubs got the first two runners on base thanks to a double by Baez and a Heyward hit-by-pitch, but they couldn't capitalize. Addison Russell struck out and David Ross and Lester each flew out to end the scoring threat.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Dodgers tied things up. Kendrick nailed a double down the left field line, and he stole third a few pitches later. On a soft ground ball to Rizzo, Kendrick bolted for home, and when the Cubs' first baseman couldn't come up cleanly with the ball, Kendrick scored and tied the game at 1-1.

The game remained tied until the top of the sixth inning, and the Cubs finally broke through again. After Baez led off the inning with a single, Addison Russell cracked a two-run home run over the center field wall to make it a 3-1 game.

In the eighth inning the Cubs got a gift as the Dodgers committed an error to start the inning, and they capitalized. Willson Contreras hit a pinch-hit single and then Albert Almora laid down a sacrifice bunt, and Fowler followed with an RBI infield single to put the Cubs ahead 4-1.

The Cubs then added to that lead again, and it was once again another infield hit that did the trick, as Kris Bryant drove in Contreras to make it a 5-1 game.

The big blow of the inning, appropriately, went to Baez, as he socked a bases-clearing double to give the Cubs an 8-1 lead.