ARLINGTON -- Catcher Omar Narvaez, who has been the Mariners’ hottest hitter the past few weeks, suffered a bruised left knee from a foul tip in the third inning of Wednesday’s 2-1 loss to the Rangers and was replaced by Tom Murphy in the top of the fourth.

The Mariners said Narvaez is day to day, but with no other catchers on the 25-man roster, the question now is whether he’ll be ready by Friday when Seattle opens a three-game series in Oakland.

Veteran Jose Lobaton would be the likely callup from Triple-A Tacoma if the Mariners need a replacement, though manager Scott Servais professed confidence that Narvaez would be able to play by the weekend series.

“Knowing Omar, he’s a pretty tough cat,” Servais said. “Hopefully he’ll be available on Friday. … He got smoked pretty good. He got hit about a week ago in the same spot and had been getting a little treatment on it. It’s a bad bruise. We’ll get a bunch of treatment here tomorrow and see how he is when we get to Oakland.”

Narvaez said he’ll ice and rehab the knee on the off-day and do whatever is possible to stay in the lineup.

“I’m really hoping to be ready Friday,” he said. “I’m not here for off-days, I’m here to play.”

The top of Narvaez’s left knee is exposed when he drops down to block low pitches, but he said that’s just part of the business. He said he took a foul ball off the same spot in Sunday’s win over the Twins.

“We’re always exposed,” he said. “This is baseball and you never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes you get hit in a bad spot where you don’t have protection. It’s just baseball.”

Narvaez stayed down on his hands and knees for several minutes after being hit by a foul ball off the bat of Danny Santana in the third inning. He was attended to by Servais and athletic trainer Rob Nodine, but Narvaez stayed in the game for the final two batters of the third after trying to walk off the pain.

“I really tried to man up for a little bit and see how it felt when I was warm,” Narvaez said. “But when Santana tried to steal third base, I was trying to feel comfortable to throw, but I couldn’t help the team. I’d rather stay back and let Murphy help us out in that situation.”

The 27-year-old backstop is hitting .307 with eight home runs and 20 RBIs on the season after lacing a single in his first at-bat Wednesday. He has hit .372 (16-for-43) with three home runs over his last 12 games.

Narvaez was acquired from the White Sox for reliever Alex Colome in November and has been one of the bright spots among general manager Jerry Dipoto’s offseason acquisitions.