Pitching Lines; Looking for ride from Birmingham on Thursday

I present to you some pitching lines from the last 24 hours:

Linescore A - 1 IP, 7 H, 10 R, 1 K, 3 BB
Linescore B - 2 1/3 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 3 K, 2 BB
Linescore C - 7 1/3 IP, 9 H, 3 R, 3 K, 1 BB
Linescore D - 5 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 8 K, 3 BB
Linescore E - 7 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 K, 4 BB

The first four are from the Pirates-Cubs games yesterday and today. Linescore A was the terribly ineffective Charlie Morton (from the Braves in the McLouth deal) who was then replaced by the equally ineffective Linescore B of reliever Chris Bootcheck en route to a 17-2 loss to Jen Harrison's Cubbies yesterday afternoon.

Linescore C was today's hard luck looser (again) Zach Duke with no run support. He was beaten by linescore D, Tom Gorzelanny (traded w/ Grabow at the deadline), and I can't believe he had 8 strikeouts.

The Pirates at the major league level are in some kind of funk right now. Ouch. The minors are doing great, though. Jeff Clement (from Seattle in the Wilson/Snell deal) has 7 HR's in 14 games with an OPS of 1.172 with Indianapolis. 20-year-old Jose Tabata is hitting .333 in his first ten games since getting promoted to AAA. Pedro Alvarez is on fire in AA Altoona, hitting .500 over his last ten games with 23 HR's on the year between Lynchburg and Altoona. Heck, even beleaguered first round pick Danny Moskos chipped in with 8 IP, 2 R, 6K, and has an ERA under 4.00 (although Matt Weiters is hitting .270 in the majors with the Orioles, Dave Littlefield)

Finally, linescore E was actually mine from last night's playoff game. I'll take it after a year layoff. I went in fearing it was going to be more like A or B, except with 10 or so walks. I was able to go 3-up, 3-down in the top of the first and we got 5 gift runs on only 1 hit in the bottom of the first. So, at that point, just had to throw strikes. And, except for 3 walks leading to 3 runs in the 2nd, we didn't give up any other runs and won 11-3. Who knew?

Today, the arm has progressively gotten stiffer and getting tougher to lift above my head, but it's decent. We went swimming this morning and then did a 1:15 bike. Beth's on her taper and she was FLYING with her fresh legs. I was keeping my cadence up over 100 for most of the day just trying to hold on.

The rest of the day involves Pizza, cleaning, and a movie. Tomorrow, I only have a 13 mile run (lighter week) before upping the mileage next week.

Next weekend, we'll be in Alabama for Beth's race in Tuscaloosa for the USAT Age Group National Championships. We're doing our normal deal of me dropping off Beth before school Thursday (in-service starts for us this week; kiddies the following Monday) and then I fly down after school.

Which, by the way, I was looking to see if I could save Beth a one hour (each way) drive next Thursday by getting a ride from the Birmingham airport up to Tuscaloosa. My flight gets in around 8:30pm. Anyone heading down for USAT nationals or know of anyone, let me know. It would be much appreciated.

Happy weekend!