It’s a quote attributed to Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver: “Momentum is only as good as the next day’s starter.”

Unfortunately for Dodger fans hoping that Clayton Kershaw’s absolutely brilliant no-hitter on Wednesday night was the spark that the Dodgers needed to propel them into this year’s version of their historic 42-8 runs (which, of course, is extremely unlikely), they were instead treated to mediocrity – at least according to Friday night’s starter Dan Haren.

After allowing three runs on five hits (including two solo home runs to Padres slugger Seth Smith) with two walks and five strikeouts in his 5.2 innings of work, Haren described himself as being “consistently mediocre.” In all honesty, Haren had been better than mediocre – just not recently.

“With all due respect, it’s Seth Smith, not Babe Ruth,” said Haren about the Padres slugger after Friday night’s game. “He was pretty much Babe Ruth tonight, though.”

Although Haren pitched well enough to win on Friday night, he also pitched mediocre enough to lose. He did neither. (Photo credit – Lenny Ignelzi)

In his 15 starts thus far this season, the 33-year-old Haren is sporting an impressive 7-4 record with a very respectable 3.62 ERA – that’s the good news. The bad news is that he has allowed a team-high 14 home runs thus far this season and the worse news is that nine of those 14 home runs have come in his last six starts, during which he is 2-2 with a 4.33 ERA.

Haren recently told SportsNetLA’s Alanna Rizzo that he is not 100% healthy and, in fact, has been troubled with back pain for quite some time.

“I feel discomfort 24 hours a day, seven days a week pretty much at this point in my career. Some days are worse than others.”

Haren went on to say that that the “general soreness” that he was currently experiencing “may be a little bit worse than normal, but I’m fine.”

But is he really “fine?’

Former Cy Young Award winner and 1988 World Series MVP Orel Hershiser doesn’t think so.

“To me it looks like something is bothering him,” said Hershiser during Haren’s May 7 loss to the Nationals in Washington D.C.

But while Dan Haren may be mired in self-proclaimed mediocrity, there is another starter in the Dodgers system who has been anything but – hard throwing 22-year-old right-hander Zach Lee, who is currently the ace of the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes.

Dodgers 2010 first round draft pick Zach Lee has been anything but mediocre this season with the Isotopes. (Photo courtesy of Albuquerque Isotopes)

Lee is 6-7 on the season with a 4.45 ERA but is 2-2 with a 3.75 ERA in his last four starts, during which time he has struck out 16 and walked five. On the season Lee has struck out 60 and walked 25 for a respectable K/BB ratio of 2.40. In his last start on June 19, Lee allowed no runs on three hits with three strikeouts and two walks in seven innings of work. And while minor league numbers rarely translate to MLB numbers, Zach Lee has something that Dan Haren does not – youth and good health.

In all fairness to Haren, it wasn’t his fault that the Dodgers were humiliated in Friday night’s 6-5 loss to the Padres, that dubious honor belongs to Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen who not only blew a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth, he did it by allowing two runs on three hits without recording an out. He then suffered the loss on a walk-off sacrifice fly. But in all fairness to Jansen as well, it was only his fourth blown save on the season compared to his 20 saves.

The point here is that Haren is following the same pattern that he has followed for the past several seasons – he pitches well for half of the season (sometimes the first half and sometimes the last half) and pitches poorly for the other half of the season, especially in the home run department.

With the Dodgers knocking on the Giants door for first place in the NL West, perhaps it’s time to go with youth and good health over “consistently mediocre.”