MILWAUKEE — Derrek Lee gave Milwaukee all the momentum. Reed Johnson just made sure Lee got a second chance.

Lee doubled with one out in the ninth to score Alfonso Soriano and the Chicago Cubs rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 6-4 last night to take a two-game lead in the NL Central.

"The way we've been playing, we just needed a win. Period," Lee said. "On the road, it makes it even better."

In the opener of a four-game series between the NL's top two teams, the Cubs prevailed to improve to 32-26 at Miller Park.

With the game tied at 4, Brewers closer Salomon Torres (5-3) struck out Kosuke Fukudome, but ran into trouble by walking Soriano and pinch hitter Mike Fontenot.

Lee, who finished 3 for 5 with three RBIs, then flared a double to right, scoring Soriano. After an intentional walk to Aramis Ramirez and a strike out of Geovany Soto, Mark DeRosa's infield single scored Fontenot to make it 6-4.

"I just got two strikes and I was battling, I was just trying to get a sinker up and get the barrel on it," Lee said. "It worked out."

Johnson did his part with a hard slide in the seventh after walking to load the bases with one out. Brewers starter CC Sabathia forced Lee to ground weakly to J.J. Hardy, the shortstop, but Johnson's hard slide took out second baseman Rickie Weeks and Weeks' errant throw allowed two to score to give the Cubs a 4-3 lead.

"You try to beat the middle infielder to a spot, and I was able to get in there and get a good piece of him," Johnson said.