Giants off to best 50-game start in AT&T Park era after sweeping Twins.

Madison Bumgarner made sure that his next start against the Twins was dizygotic to the previous one. Today's game was the Arnold Schwarzennegger to June 20, 2011's Danny DeVito. Michael Knight instead of Garth.

He power pitched them. It was pretty unfair. The Twins, who hail from Major League Baseball's most boring division, were unable to make it interesting at any point today. A throwing error allowed them to get a runner to third base and then a sacrifice fly netted them their lone run. You could've packaged the Twins' offense this weekend and sold it with soup and nobody would've said, "These are exceptional saltines!" they would've said, "Why did I ruin this soup with saltines?"

Anyway, Madison Bumgarner's career line after two starts against the Twins:

Now it just looks like he had to take one for the team and save the bullpen rather than perform in such a way that we all wondered if he was broken.

Let's check in on Madison Bumgarner and see how he's doing...

Looks good.

You know who did not look good? Ricky Nolasco. His last two starts against the Giants (one with the Dodgers, the one after the 19-3 game):

Not to pick on Ricky Nolasco, but he's no Madison Bumgarner.

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The Giants are 32-18 after the first 50 games of the season. 50 games in a 162-game season definitely feels like an arbitrary endpoint, but the roundness/wholeness of that number tickles my brain pretty much to the point that I have to look at it. Does the record after the first 50 games *mean* anything for the rest of the season? Probably not. Last season was pure upheaval when it came to characterizing good starts and what they mean for the rest of the season.

Since AT&T Park opened:

Again… there's no way to tell where this all goes. The Giants have weathered their injuries pretty well and the pitching has been stellar, but almost surprisingly so. Both of those conditions could change in an instant, but the same can be said of every team. Fortune can turn on a single pitch or a single play, as we've all witnessed.

For the Giants, though, they certainly feel that they've earned this record and they obviously believe it's sustainable. If you're a high performance machine like a professional athlete, then creeping doubt can't be a factor. It's amusing that the offseason a lot of us (myself included) scratched our heads at has played out in almost exactly the manner the front office intended. So, I'll borrow the mindset I assume the players on our favorite baseball squadron have and say who cares if the Giants are lucky when they're clearly good and they're winning and that's all that matters.

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Michael Morse has risen in popularity about as fast as his screaming line drives jump off his bat. He's feeling pretty good, I'm feeling pretty good, you're feeling pretty good.