SEATTLE -- Mariners catcher Chris Herrmann was taken out of Sunday's 12-1 loss to the Dodgers in the bottom of the third inning with a bruised right knee after taking a Yasiel Puig foul ball off his leg in the top of the frame.
"Herrmann got smoked on the foul tip right off the knee cap or the muscle right next to the knee," said manager Scott Servais. "It's very sore and tender. We'll see how he is. We got beat up physically, mentally, every way you want to put it. It was not a good Sunday at the ballpark."
Mike Zunino, scheduled to have the day off after starting the previous six games, replaced Herrmann after the 30-year-old backup limped off the field following the Dodgers' final out.
Herrmann has posted a .232/.313/.429 line with two triples and a home run in 56 at-bats in 25 games for Seattle since replacing David Freitas as the backup catcher.
A checked-swing foul ball from Puig caught Herrmann flush in the knee, but he remained in the game and finished off a 10-pitch strikeout of Austin Barnes by pitcher Roenis Elias, though it was clear his knee was hurting as he worked that at-bat.
"Hermy is tough. But when it was hard to put any weight on it or anything else just giving signs or what not, we needed to get him out of the game," Servais said.
Zunino and Freitas -- who is hitting .358 in 29 games for Triple-A Tacoma -- are the only other catchers on Seattle's 40-man roster. Former Phillies backstop Cameron Rupp, who signed a Minor League deal in mid-July, is the other current catcher in Tacoma.