Without seeing the level of control you have I don't know if this is accessible for you or not, but couldn't you modify the Layout/template/whatever they use to put merge rows 1 and 2? Put the post title, a delimiter of your choosing and the posters name. That would eliminate the additional row in most cases.

It would also be nice to have have less empty space to the left and right of all content. As is I have something like 35 pixels of padding to each side on everything. Filling that width would be preferable to my eyes.

One last quick comment. Personal Icons are way too large IMO. It's causing exceedingly short posts to expand vertically at least 50 pixels more than they should. Perhaps div tagging the personal poster info so the icon appears to the left and the text on the right would reduce the problem of post stretch.

Though like I said, I don't know how much control you have over layout to say what you can do. I'd be happy to lend my web design skills if you'd like.