Russell Branyan watched the Seattle Mariners win their 68th of the season tonight, then dressed and brushed his teeth.

“I can still do that,” he said.

What Branyan cannot do is swing a bat or play the game, not with a herniated disk in his back, discovered during an MRI Saturday.

The Mariners deemed it serious enough to put him on the 15-day disabled list, and both they and Branyan know the rest of his season could be in jeopardy.

“It depends how my body responds to rest and treatment,” Branyan said of missing the rest of the season. “It’s been bothering me since the All-Star break, and it started to affect the way I ran, the way I fielded.

“It just seemed in everyone’s best interest to find out what was going on.”

Branyan will be given rest and treatment for the disk problem, but knows his season might be over. That would be a shame.

Given the first chance in his career to play every day in the big leagues, he’s batted .251 with 31 home runs and 76 RBI in 116 games at age 33.

At the All-Star break, Branyan was hitting .280.