Giants surprised all with the way they reached majors’ best record, plus Sunday lineup

Giants surprised all with the way they reached majors’ best record, plus Sunday lineup

Win or lose, after Sunday night's game against the Arizona the Giants will go into the All-Star break with the majors' best record.

[...] they lost Hunter Pence, Angel Pagan for a time, infielders Joe Panik, Kelby Tomlinson and Matt Duffy ,and reliever Sergio Romo.

If they go .500 in the second half they win 92 games, which has been the threshold for a playoff spot in the National League.

[...] comes more than a month filled with potential land mines: a home-and-home with the Nationals, a killer-heat trip to Philadelphia (which played the Giants tough at AT&T), Washington and Miami, seven at home against the Orioles and Mets, three in Los Angeles.

To expect the Giants to keep flattening the opposition like the coyote in the "Roadrunner" cartoons is unrealistic.

[...] again, all the injured will (or at least should) start trickling back, and the front office is working to fortify the bullpen and bench.

[...] it'll be the Dodgers and Giants down the stretch, and that is always fun.

Manager Bruce Bochy and his staff decided to skip the fifth spot in the rotation this week to get Bumgarner two starts instead of one, on normal rest.

If that persuaded Bochy to remove Bumgarner after six innings Tuesday night against Colorado, rather than let him start the seventh with a 2-0 lead, it backfired when the bullpen gave up four runs in the seventh and three in the eighth.

Bumgarner again will pitch on normal rest in the second-half opener Friday, then be off for a week.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.