Sucre hit on left wrist by bat, leaves game early

SEATTLE -- Mariners catcher Jesus Sucre was hit on the left wrist by Alexei Ramirez's bat on a backswing in the fifth inning Tuesday and left the game a half-inning later.

"He finished the inning and was going to try, and he got in the on-deck circle and just couldn't go, so that's when we made the change," manager Eric Wedge said.

Sucre went 0-for-2 before he was replaced by pinch-hitter Kelly Shoppach in the bottom of the fifth. Wedge said that "something small" showed up on X-rays, and that Sucre would be evaluated further Wednesday morning.

Sucre was called up from Triple-A Tacoma on May 24 after hitting .302 with the Rainiers. The rookie was playing in his eighth MLB game, and entered with a .208 batting average. The Mariners are already thin at catcher, with Jesus Montero on the disabled list for four-to-six weeks.

"[General manager] Jack [Zduriencik] and I just started talking about it. We're going to talk some more when we're done here," Wedge said. "So we're kind of in a pickle here, but we're going to have to try to cover ourselves."