*** NEWS *** » Andrew Luck has done some of his most memorable

He’d rather spend the time protecting leads.Lately Miles Boykin Jersey , the Colts’ have allowed Luck to use his preferred strategy by scoring early and often before relying on a balanced attack and an increasingly stout defense to close out victories. It’s happened each of the past two weeks in crucial games, putting Indy on the cusp of a historic milestone.“I think it’s discipline, sound fundamentals, sound technique, it’s converting third downs. It’s all of those things,” Luck said Tuesday as the Colts try to become the first team to reach a conference championship game after starting 1-5. “It’s nice to be playing with a lead, especially on the road.”In previous seasons, slow starts forced Luck & Co. to climb out of some huge holes.Sure, Luck thrived in those situations, engineering 21 game-winning drives in the fourth quarter or overtime during his first five pro seasons, including a league-record seven in 2012 and the second-largest playoff comeback in January 2014 against the Kanas City Chiefs. He added three more comeback wins this season, all since late October Deandre Baker Jersey , with the most recent coming Dec. 23 against the New York Giants.But as the playoff picture came into focus, Luck didn’t need a series of fantastic finishes.Instead, during their current five-game winning streak, the Colts (11-6) have trailed in only two games and have not faced a deficit larger than 10. Indy led wire-to-wire in three of its last four victories and hasn’t trailed since scoring the go-ahead touchdown in the final minute of the Giants’ game in Week 16.The formula could prove particularly useful at Kansas City in Saturday’s divisional round game.“When you get the lead, you can dictate how the game goes,” said kicker Adam Vinatieri, who owns four Super Bowl rings and is expected to appear in his 32nd postseason game. “By taking the lead, you get to manage the game and that’s one of the things I’m really impressed with is how well the defense has played the last couple of weeks.”This will be a different kind of test.The AFC West champion Chiefs (12-4) return from a bye week as the conference’s top seed, with the league’s highest scoring offense (35.3 points) and a lot to prove in a lopsided postseason series.Kansas City is 0-4 all-time against Indy in the playoffs, having lost at home following the 1995 season after securing he No. 1 seed and again in 2003, in a game that featured no punts. The Chiefs also lost in Indy following the 2006 season when Larry Johnson, the league’s No. 2 rusher http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-oshane-ximines-jersey , gained just 32 yards, and again in January 2014 when Luck rallied the Colts from a 38-10 deficit in the third quarter for a 45-44 victory falling just short of the record 32-point comeback orchestrated by Colts coach Frank Reich in January 1993.This time, Kansas City is back on its home turf and trying to create some new memories.“I’ll tell you that we are going through the process and getting ready to play a great football team,” coach Andy Reid said. “So we know that and that’s where absolutely all my energy is going.”But what the Chiefs have seen on film is the hottest team in football.Running back Marlon Mack has five 100-yard games this season, including each of the past two weeks, receiver T.Y. Hilton and tight end Eric Ebron continue to make big plays down the field, the offensive line hasn’t given up a sack in two weeks and Luck appears to be in perfect sync.The combination has led Indy to wins in 10 of its last 11 games, with the last two coming in elimination games on the road.But after taking a 14-0 lead in a Week 17 playoff-clinching victory at Tennessee and a 21-0 lead at Houston in last week’s wild-card victory, the Titans and Texans never had a chance — and the Colts would like to keep it that way one more week.“We’re trying to score every time we touch the ball. We’re going to call the game in a way that we can score points,” Reich said. “We want to run it, that’s no secret, that keeps them off the field Julian Love Jersey , but the bottom line is we’ve got to score points.” By two percentage points, the Arizona Diamondbacks are no longer in the lead in the NL West.

Losing six of seven at home will do that.

Eric Lauer limited Arizona to a run over five-plus innings, Austin Hedges homered for the first time since April 10 and the San Diego Padres opened a four-game series in the desert with a 6-3 victory over the slumping Diamondbacks on Thursday night.

The Diamondbacks fell to 1-6 in what will be a 10-game homestand and dropped into a virtual tie with the idle Los Angeles Dodgers for first place in the NL West. Arizona had been alone in first since June 8.

”We know that we are in a pennant race, if you want to call it that right now at the halfway point of the season,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said. ”I think we enjoy that part of the game. We know it is going to be a dogfight for the rest of the year.”

Wil Myers drove in two runs with a triple and single, and Carlos Asuaje reached base four times – a triple, RBI single and two walks – for the last-place Padres, winners for only the fourth time in 17 games.

”Offensively, I think Carlos Asuaje is probably the story of the day for us,” San Diego manager Andy Green said.

Shelby Miller (0-3) was better in his third start coming off Tommy John surgery, but still got the loss, allowing five runs – three earned – and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out seven and walked two.

”I feel good http://www.giantsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-darius-slayton-jersey ,” Miller said. ”I think today the command was a little bit better. I would have liked to go out there and finish the sixth, put up a zero out there and get out of the game. Have us in a little better situation, 2-1 instead of 5-1, leaving that inning but we kind of beat ourselves that inning a little bit.”

Arizona’s Ketel Marte hit a two-run homer off Matt Strahm in the eighth.

Lauer, a 23-year-old left-hander, gave up seven hits – mostly to soft contact – walked two and hit a batter, but only one of those baserunners managed to score in his first win in four starts.

Brad Hand gave up an infield single, then struck out the next three in the ninth for his 24th save in 28 opportunities.

Miller, who had allowed 11 runs and 15 hits in 8 2/3 innings during his first two starts back from the surgery, got off to a rocky start in the first inning when the second batter, Asuaje, tripled to deep center and scored on Myers’ single.

But the Arizona right-hander settled down Quinnen Williams Jersey , blanking the Padres for three innings before Hedges’ line shot into the left-field seats put San Diego up 2-1 in the fifth. Hedges missed 41 games with right elbow tendinitis before being reinstated on June 24.

An error by usually sure-handed shortstop Nick Ahmed led to two unearned runs in San Diego’s three-run sixth. Asuaje led off with an 11-pitch walk and scored when Myers tripled to deep right-center.

Ahmed muffed Eric Hosmer’s hard one-bouncer to allow Myers to score. Freddy Galvis‘ two-out single off reliever Andrew Chafin brought home Hosmer and the Padres led 5-1.

BIG PITCH

With runners at first and third and two outs in the fifth, Lauer struck out Paul Goldschmidt with a pitch that Green never had seen the pitcher throw: a cutter.

”It’s fun to watch a kid throw a pitch that you’ve never seen him throw before,” Green said. ”I haven’t seen the 90 mph cutter out of him before. If I haven’t seen it, Goldschmidt hasn’t seen it, either.”

Lauer said he has been working on the cutter as his slider evolved and was ”amped up” when he threw it to Goldschmidt.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Diamondbacks: OF Steven Souza Jr. (right pectoral strain) was activated from the 10-day DL and OF Jarrod Dyson was placed on the DL with a strained right groin. Souza started in right field and went 0 for 3 at the plate with a walk in just his 15th game of the season. Dyson was injured in Arizona’s loss to St. Louis Wednesday night.

UP NEXT

Padres LHP Joey Lucchesi (4-3, 3.26 ERA) makes his fourth start since coming off the disabled list (right hip strain) and the Diamondbacks counter with RHP Zack Godley (9-6, 5.07) in the second game of the four-game series.

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