Giants 1B Brandon Belt making speedy recovery from emergency appendectomy

San Francisco Giants first baseman Brandon Belt, who had an emergency appendectomy on June 2, is making a quick recovery and is expected to join the team in Los Angeles this weekend.

"He soft-tossed, he threw, did quite a bit of baseball activities," manager Bruce Bochy told the San Jose Mercury News. "Tomorrow he'll take regular batting practice and that's a big step. If he feels fine doing that, we're getting close on him."

Bochy said Belt will be evaluated by the team's medical staff in Los Angeles to see if he is healthy enough to be reinstated to the team's 25-man roster this weekend or will need a few rehab games.

The surgery was initially expected to keep Belt out for three weeks.

Belt is batting .307 and despite the missed games is leading the Giants with 11 home runs.