Before the Philadelphia Phillies took the field for their series finale with the Baltimore Orioles on Wednesday afternoon, manager Rob Thomson gave fans a scare. As reported by multiple Phillies beat writers, the skipper divulged that the team plans to push Zack Wheeler’s next start back a couple of days due to some shoulder soreness, per MLB.com’s Paul Casella.

Wheeler, who was originally scheduled to start in the series opener on Friday in Arlington against the Texas Rangers, has been bumped back to Sunday. But what’s the deal with the right-hander’s shoulder?

Rob Thomson reveals Phillies’ ace Zack Wheeler had shoulder soreness

As shared by Dave Uram of KYW Newsradio, Thomson explained the situation to the media before the Phillies lost 5-1 to the Orioles. Apparently, Wheeler came off his start last Saturday against the Detroit Tigers with shoulder soreness. Luckily, imaging came back clean.

“Wheeler came out of his last start a little sore, more sore than he normally is,” Thomson told the media. “We got an image done. It’s clean. We’re just going to give him a couple extra days.”

“He’s fine, so if he’s ready to go Sunday … ,” Thomson said, per Casella. “Obviously, we can back him up even more if we need to, because we have the off-day [on Thursday].”

Wheeler didn’t throw for a couple of days because of the soreness but played catch on Wednesday.

Thomson elaborated on Wheeler’s shoulder, saying that he does think it affected his command, which was a problem for the 35-year-old ace in his last outing. Wheeler himself blamed poor command for his difficulties last weekend against the Tigers.

Did Wheeler’s complete game contribute to his recent struggles with command?

Thomson pointed to Wheeler’s complete game against the Cincinnati Reds on July 7 as a possible root cause that may be behind Wheeler’s current issues and shoulder soreness. When asked, he was non-commital about whether he’d let any of his pitchers throw another complete game this season.

“I hope not. It bothers me, it really does. It scares me, it concerns me,” Thomson said. “When a guy’s got a low pitch count, he wants it so it’s hard to take it away. I know that there’s some effects that are put on the body on the arm, fatigue.”

After that masterful nine-inning, one-run, 12-strikeout performance against the Reds, Wheeler had a 2.17 ERA in 18 starts. He has allowed 13 earned runs in 23 2/3 innings for a very un-Wheeler-like 4.94 ERA in the four games since.

Any whisper of a Wheeler injury would send the fan base into a tailspin. Despite the rotation being the Phillies’ strength, it would look much less threatening if Wheeler were to miss any amount of time.

The good news is, as long as the Phillies are careful (as they are being) and Wheeler is cleared to continue his second half, there shouldn’t be much for Phillies fans to worry about. Wheeler has been about as good as he has ever been this year. He’s still 9-5 on the season with a 2.64 ERA and leads the National League with 182 strikeouts in 139 2/3 innings.