MILWAUKEE -- Another late night, another nail-biter and ultimately, another victory for the Chicago Cubs who inched closer to a NL Central title with a 5-4 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers Friday night at Miller Park.

This time, Tommy La Stella was the offensive hero, drawing a bases-loaded walk off Corey Knebel in the top of the 10th inning while Carl Edwards Jr. put up a zero in the bottom of the frame to give the Cubs their second consecutive victory over the Brewers and extend their division lead to 5 1/2 games.

Tied at 4 after Edwards (5-4) worked a scoreless ninth, Knebel came back out for a second inning, having only thrown nine pitches in the ninth inning.

He got in trouble quickly as Kris Bryant drew a leadoff walk and Anthony Rizzo singled to right.

Knebel (1-4) intentionally walked Ben Zobrist to load the bases, then struck out Leonys Martin before La Stella drew a walk to send in the go-ahead run.

"He has not played in a bit," Maddon said of La Stella. "He goes out there. He's not too eager. He slowed everything down and wasn't trying to do too much. He accepted his walk. That's the thing, man, with the young baseball players today. Many are not willing to accept the walk. You have to be willing to do that in that situation."

The Brewers threatened in the bottom of the inning with a leadoff walk for Hernan Perez. Eric Sogard reached on a fielder's choice and then tried to take second when Edwards lost a pitch in the dirt.

Sogard reached second easily, but Addison Russell kept the tag applied while Sogard let go of the bag and was called out.

"Game on the line right there," Russell said. "Really, in that situation I'm just looking at Sogard to see what his first move is. I saw a ball down on the ground in the dirt and I saw him break for the bag. I broke for the bag. Willie (Contreras) did a good job of seeing that whole play out and delivering the throw. I just made sure I kept the tag on him. He came off the bag. Sogard's just going 100 percent there and he happened to come off the bag. I just kept the tag on him. I saw his hands and foot leave the bag."

Brewers manager Craig Counsell challenged, but the call was confirmed.

"My fingers fell off the back half, and kind of went down at ground level," Sogard said. "My straight finger I thought was against the bag, so obviously you can't see that. I mean checking the cameras after the game there was no evidence to really overturn it, so I think that was kind of the issue there. It's just unfortunate, just kind of how things have been kind of going this series."

After stranding five runners in an 0-for-4 showing a night earlier, Ryan Braun came through in his first at-bat, driving home Walker in the first to give the Brewers a 1-0 lead.

John Lackey retired his first two batters in the second but gave up home runs to Stephen Vogt and Brett Phillips, making it a 3-0 game.

The Cubs got two back in the third. Jon Jay doubled in Javier Baez then scored on Bryant's RBI single before Woodruff recovered and got out of the inning without further damage.

Milwaukee couldn't take advantage of runners at the corners with one out in the bottom of the inning and Chicago pushed ahead in the fifth on Zobrist's two-run single.

The lead didn't last long though.

Brian Duensing came on to replace Lackey for the fifth and after getting Walker to bounce into a double play, Braun and Travis Shaw hit back-to-back doubles to tie the game at 4.

"They pitched well," Counsell said. "We didn't get much going against their bullpen. We had some decent at-bats, we just couldn't get anything going."

NOTES: Brewers GM David Stearns said minor league INF Julio Mendez remains in critical but stable condition and has been transferred to a hospital in his native Venezuela. Mendez suffered a cardiac event when he was hit by a pitch during an Arizona Fall League game on Aug. 26. ... SS Addison Russell and C Willson Contreras were not in the Cubs' starting lineup Friday as Joe Maddon tried to give them both a rest before an early game Saturday. Both entered the game as replacements, however. ... Milwaukee was without C Manny Pina, who sprained his left thumb Thursday night.