The Cubs are one win away from advancing to the World Series for the first time since 1945 thanks to a 8-4 win Thursday in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.
Cubs starter Jon Lester delivered seven innings of one-run ball in Los Angeles, limiting the Dodgers to five hits before Pedro Strop and Aroldis Chapman closed out the victory. The remainder of the best-of-seven series will be played in Chicago.
With his go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning, the Cubs' Addison Russell became the second-youngest shortstop in postseason history to homer in consecutive games. The Cubs added five runs in the eighth inning on RBI infield singles by Dexter Fowler and Kris Bryant, and a three-run double by Javier Baez.
Three takeaways from Chicago's win:
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1. Mind games don't affect Lester. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said before the game his players were going to take "huge leads" and try to bunt on Lester to "try to get in his psyche a little bit." Lester is known as being a bad defender who rarely throws to first to hold runners. The Dodgers who did get on base against Lester took some drastic measures to try to distract him, but Lester was unfazed.
Lester finished with six strikeouts while throwing 108 pitches. The stellar playoff performance is nothing new for Lester, who now has nine postseason starts of six-plus innings with one or fewer runs allowed, the sixth-most such games in MLB history. Only Tom Glavine (14), Andy Pettitte (12), Curt Schilling (11), John Smoltz and Roger Clemens (10) have more.
2. The Dodgers shook up their lineup to no avail. Roberts benched Chase Utley, Josh Reddick, Yasmani Grandal and Andrew Toles (all but Grandal are left-handed hitters, and Grandal is a switch hitter) in favor of righty-swinging Carlos Ruiz, Howie Kendrick, Yasiel Puig and Kike Hernandez to provide a spark against the left-handed Lester.
The Dodgers were last in the majors with a .214 average against lefties during the regular season, and Ruiz, Puig and Hernandez combined to go 0 for 8 against Lester. LA did have some chances before Chicago blew things open in the eighth, but went 0 for 4 with runners in scoring position vs. Lester.
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3. Joe Blanton blows up again. The starter-turned-reliever was one of the Dodgers' best bullpen pieces all season. The 35-year-old right-hander went 7-2 with a 2.48 ERA and 28 holds. All that has gone out the window this postseason. After giving up a grand slam to Miguel Montero in Game 1 of the NLCS, Blanton served up the go-ahead homer to Russell and has now given up five extra-base hits in 7 2/3 postseason innings after allowing 18 such hits in 80 innings during the regular season.
Highlight
Russell joined Alex Gonzalez as the only Cubs shortstops to hit multiple home runs in the postseason.
What's next
Game 6: Dodgers at Cubs, 8 p.m. ET Saturday, Fox Sports 1 — After five full days of rest, Clayton Kershaw (12-4, 1.69 ERA) gets the ball for the Dodgers as the club hopes to stave off elimination and improve to 5-0 when Kershaw pitches this postseason. Kyle Hendricks (16-8, 2.13 ERA), who suffered the hard-luck loss in Game 2 after surrendering just one run on three hits, takes the mound for the Cubs.