Beltre feels for Kouzmanoff

SEATTLE -- Adrian Beltre was activated off the disabled list on Friday but he felt for Kevin Kouzmanoff, who is going to be sidelined for an extended period of time with a herniated disc in his lower back.

"I thought he was our best hitter in the last two weeks," Beltre said. "Power, production, hitting in the clutch, he was better than anybody could have expected. It's tough, we know how hard he worked to get back in the big leagues. You could see in Spring Training he wanted to get back and did everything he could. He did a great job for two weeks. It's sad to see a guy who worked so hard like that get injured."

Beltre was sidelined for two weeks with a strained left quad muscle. He said he has been ready to play for over a week but he's still going to be cautious, especially getting out of the batter's box and running the bases.

"Obviously for the next 10 days or so, I'm not going to force anything," Beltre said. "I want to make sure I'm good. Defense is not a problem but coming out of the box and trying to get that extra gear, I won't be pushing it for the next 7-10 days."