Vince Velasquez exited Thursday's start after one inning with numbness in his right middle finger, per the Phillies. He was replaced by Mark Leiter Jr. to start the second inning.
After striking out Curtis Granderson to open the game and getting Neil Walker to pop out to third base, Velasquez ran into trouble. He gave up a double to Yoenis Céspedes and walked Michael Conforto before Wilmer Flores hit a three-run blast. Velasquez allowed another double to Jose Reyes before he got Travis d'Arnaud to line out to end the inning.
In all, Velasquez threw 32 pitches (17 strikes), allowed three earned runs and issued one walk.
Velasquez spent time on the disabled list earlier this summer with a right elbow flexor strain suffered on May 30.
The right-hander has been up and down in his four starts since the All-Star break prior to Thursday. He was solid in two of those of those outings but failed to last past the fifth inning in the other two games.
For the season, Velasquez now has a 5.13 ERA.
