LOS ANGELES -- One more win. Two great lefties. That’s what stands between the Chicago Cubs and history.

Addison Russell’s two-run homer backed the latest sparkling postseason outing from Jon Lester as the Cubs beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-4 on Thursday. As the series shifts back to Wrigley Field for Game 6, the Cubs are one win away from their first National League pennant since 1945. After being shut out in back-to-back games, the Cubs have scored 18 runs in two nights to regain control of the National League Championship Series.

The game was in some ways a continuation of Game 4, when Russell and Anthony Rizzo snapped out of postseason-long funks with six hits and five RBIs between them. Rizzo drove in the Cubs’ first run with a first-inning double off Kenta Maeda, and he later bunted for a hit against the Dodgers’ shift in the seventh. Beyond his tiebreaking home run in the sixth, Russell added a ninth-inning single.

While the Cubs grabbed the early lead, they didn’t take full advantage of Maeda, who had faded down the stretch and hasn’t pitched deep into a start in more than a month. The Cubs stranded two men in the first inning and another in the second. They got the first two on in the fourth but again came up empty, though Maeda was pulled with two outs and Lester coming to the plate.

The Dodgers tied the game in the fourth on an infield groundout from Adrian Gonzalez that was bobbled by Rizzo with Howie Kendrick on third and the infield drawn in. At that point, it looked like the Cubs’ lack of clutch hitting was going to be the story of the game.

But then the electric Javier Baez led off the sixth with a single off Joe Blanton, the reliever who allowed Miguel Montero’s pinch-hit grand slam in Game 1 at Wrigley Field. Baez stole second, but Jason Heyward struck out, dropping the Cubs to 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Then Russell, who was 1 for his first 25 in the playoffs before his Game 4 breakout, drove a Blanton pitch 425 feet over the wall to dead center. The drive put the Cubs ahead 3-1 with Lester throwing well and spared Joe Maddon a looming tough decision about whether to hit for his top starter, as he did in Lester’s Game 1 start.

Just as they did on Wednesday, the Cubs kept adding to their lead as the game progressed. They put five on the board in the eighth, the last three on a bases-clearing double from Baez.

For Lester, making his 17th career postseason start, the outing continued an October to remember. He’s allowed just two runs over 21 innings (0.86 ERA) this postseason. While Dodgers manager Dave Roberts cycled through his bullpen, Lester pitched seven innings before handing off to the Cubs’ closing crew.

Now comes the fun part: With the Cubs on the cusp of reaching their first World Series in 71 years, they must beat either Clayton Kershaw in Saturday's Game 6 or Rich Hill in a potential Game 7 on Sunday. The lefties both sported sub-2.00 ERAs during the season, and they have combined to shut out the Cubs for 13 innings in the NLCS.

The Cubs will face that daunting duo knowing that as a franchise they have gone 0-for-6 in potential NLCS-clinching games since divisional play was introduced in 1969. They were up 2-0 against San Diego in 1984 before dropping three straight in a best-of-five series, and repeated that history in 2003 when they blew a 3-1 lead against the then-Florida Marlins.

No one said making history is easy, and the Cubs will counter with two pretty good pitchers of their own: Kyle Hendricks in Game 6 and Jake Arrieta if needed in Game 7. After responding to their biggest challenge of the season by taking the last two games at Dodger Stadium, the Cubs have never been better positioned to take a step they haven't taken in a long time.