This, that and the other (and more)

The Orioles swept Oakland by scores of 4-2, 4-0 and 3-2. According to Elias, it's the first time in nine years that they won three straight despite scoring four runs or fewer in each game. The three starting pitchers back in 2002 were Travis Driskill, Jason Johnson and Sidney Ponson. You can look it up. Update: The A's fired manager Bob Geren this morning and replaced him with former Orioles catcher Bob Melvin. A nine-game losing streak will do that to you. It might not have gained much notice last night, but second baseman Robert Andino should be commended for ranging far to his left in the ninth inning and gloving ground balls from Kurt Suzuki and David DeJesus that were headed for right field. Andino produced two outs on almost identical plays, and closer Kevin Gregg retired Ryan Sweeney to notch his 12th save. Nolan Reimold was charged with a three-base error on Jemile Weeks' fly ball leading off the eighth inning. After much debate, the official scorer let the error stand after consulting with both teams and a few people in the press box. The ball disappeared in a bank of lights, and it sailed past Reimold as he shielded his face. He never touched it, but he should have made the catch, so he's stuck with an error and Jim Johnson is stuck with an unearned run. In his last 16 games, Johnson has allowed two earned runs in 21 innings. The secret of Johnson's success? "Just try to get ahead," he said. "Strike one. And use the defense." And there you have it. Manager Buck Showalter is keeping him busy. Johnson is pretty much on an every-other-day schedule, and he's thrown more than one inning in three of his last four appearances. Overall, he's 4-1 with a 2.57 ERA, five walks and 27 strikeouts in 35 innings. "If things work out perfectly you throw every other day, or something like that, but it all depends on the game situations," he said. "You're going to have a stretch where sometimes you're not going to be needed and you're either going to be winning by a lot, losing by a lot, or situations that just don't call for you. So it's good to be in consistently close games and winning those games." The bullpen has allowed only three earned runs in the last 10 games and 35 innings since May 28. "We've had a good streak and we're trying to keep it going," Johnson said. "There's ups and downs in the season and we're just trying to keep on moving." Did you ever wonder what Gregg thought of rookie Zach Britton? Well, here you go: "The thing with Britton, he's such a student," Gregg said. "He's really receptive to the game. He really tries to learn every time he goes out there. He's not getting frustrated for not winning. He understands the team approach. To keep trying to better himself with that approach is tremendous. You saw that (last night)."