WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 He left the mound after five innings, looking straight to the dugout as the Phillies faithful in D.C. cheered him. Zack Wheeler was mad, manager Rob Thomson said postgame Friday, that he exited at 97 pitches.<\/p>\n
It was typical Wheeler, and the pitching was typical of what Wheeler had shown of late. His command, at times, was spotty. His velocity ticked up for the first time in a few starts. He struck out six.<\/p>\n
Wheeler, who reported right shoulder stiffness last week, felt normal as he prepared for the start. But he noticed new symptoms after pitching five innings, head athletic trainer Paul Buchheit said, including some heaviness.<\/p>\n
He was evaluated Saturday morning, and a blood clot was found near his right shoulder. The Phillies placed Wheeler on the 15-day injured list after Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Further testing and evaluation will be conducted in Philadelphia early next week, revealing a more specific prognosis and timeline. Buchheit said he does not believe last week\u2019s shoulder stiffness is related to the blood clot.<\/p>\n
Kyle Schwarber said the team had a feeling something was wrong when Wheeler did not report on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBaseball is baseball,\u201d Schwarber said. \u201cWhen it comes to someone\u2019s health like that, we need him healthy first. He\u2019s got a family, so we want to get him feeling good for them, and get him back to speed whenever we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thomson said he was thinking about Wheeler and his family because of the injury\u2019s more serious nature.<\/p>\n
It is a serious enough injury to cast doubt on his availability for the remainder of the regular season and postseason, even without a detailed prognosis. Every week Wheeler misses would require another week of recovery time.<\/p>\n
The Phillies\u2019 strong rotation, among the best in MLB, has been its calling card. Wheeler, 35, is its ace. He is 10-5 with a 2.71 ERA and 195 strikeouts over 149 2\/3 innings. He made the All-Star team for the third time this season and finished second in the National League Cy Young Award voting in 2024.<\/p>\n
Beyond Wheeler and Cristopher S\u00e1nchez, there have been recent concerns. Jes\u00fas Luzardo has pitched through a rollercoaster season. Ranger Su\u00e1rez has a 6.59 ERA in five outings since the All-Star Break. Aaron Nola, who struggled at the start of 2025, is a question mark as he returns from injury. Taijuan Walker, though steady in recent outings, would likely not be a postseason starter.<\/p>\n
The Phillies were planning to move to a six-man rotation upon reinstating Aaron Nola on Sunday. Now, they are back to five.<\/p>\n
Thomson said he feels good about the club\u2019s depth, adding that top prospect Andrew Painter or someone else could be an option should the Phillies need a sixth starter.<\/p>\n
Painter, who is pitching for Triple-A Lehigh Valley on Saturday, gave up three runs (two earned) in the first and has dealt with command issues while returning from Tommy John.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve just got to carry on,\u201d Thomson said. \u201cPeople have got to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Phillies have no choice but to do so as the stretch run commences. And they will do so with Wheeler on their minds.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re praying for him, and trying to keep in contact with him,\u201d Taijuan Walker said. \u201cBut I know he knows that we\u2019re all here for him and we love him. It\u2019s definitely scary.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Photo: Mitchell Layton \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 He left the mound after five innings, looking straight to the dugout as the Phillies…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":97079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[21850,363,480,99],"class_list":["post-97078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-fantasy-baseball","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}